India’s Foreign Minister set for pivotal visit
India’s Minister of External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, is set to begin his official visit here tomorrow and high on the agenda, is the signing of an air services agreement which was initiated in 2016 under the APNU+AFC government.
The agreement is expected to ease the hassle in travelling between Guyana and India, High Commissioner Dr K J Srinivasa explained at a press conference yesterday at the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre on Anira Street. He expanded by saying that there has been an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) but the agreement will encourage and promote air travel with airlines offering connections.
As they aim to strengthen bilateral partnerships, Jaishankar and his delegation will hold discussions in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, defence, health and pharmaceuticals, technology and innovation, energy including renewables, human resource and capacity building, and Ayurveda and wellness.
“This visit by the External Affairs Minister is expected to solidify the bilateral relations by improving the exchange of high level visits between the two countries. We are also following up on various discussions, which happened during the high level visits in January and February,” the High Commissioner said.
Following a visit to India in February, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on his return announced the visit by Jaishankar.
At a press conference, Jagdeo had said that the two sides will sign a MoU to deepen energy relations.
“The MoU will deal with a number of issues. The MoU will deal with exploring the possibility of trading in crude oil, that is [the] sale of crude oil, but we agreed with the minister that this has to be beneficial to both countries and it has to follow market conditions. There is no agreement to sell any oil to India at this point in time. And any such agreement in the future will have to be competitive and will have to benefit both parties.
“… It deals with strengthening our regulatory capacity and sharing expertise building capacity in the staff at MRE… It also speaks about the collaboration in the future for natural gas… [as well as] potential areas for bilateral cooperation and developing our resources…” Jagdeo added.
During the official visit, Jaishankar will also oversee the signing of a number of bilateral agreements to strengthen ties in trade and investment between the two countries. Srinivasa explained too that while deepening of oil and gas relations has been talked about, it is not yet determined whether an agreement will be signed during the visit.
“As I mentioned, there’s a joint working group on energy and it’s not limited to the oil and gas, it is renewable energies also.
Therefore, we are going to have discussions on that, we are working on that as we speak… It needs some clearances from both sides. So if you get those clearances by the time he lands here… we will be sign the orders otherwise they will sign in the near future,” he explained.
The High Commissioner went on to say they are working out the modalities of how to take the agreement forward. He stated too, that the technical group comprising experts from both countries was formed and has held meetings.
Ferry vessel
Jaishankar will so participate in several other events which include the commissioning of the new India-financed ferry vessel for the North West District on Sunday, a site visit to the construction of the India-funded Ogle to Eccles bypass road, and an Indian diaspora engagement at the Guyana Marriott Hotel,