Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo is on a one-week visit to India and talks on cooperation in the areas of trade, energy and agriculture have been ongoing.
According to a release from India’s External Affairs Ministry, subject minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held discussions with Guyana’s Vice President on Tuesday.
“(I) discussed our historical relationship and greater opportunities in contemporary partnership, especially in trade, energy, agriculture, skills and people-to-people ties.
“Also agreed that greater frequency of India-CARICOM contacts will further galvanise ties,” Minister Jaishankar tweeted following the meeting in New Dehli.
During that engagement, the two officials also discussed India’s Presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20), which is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union. It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.
Jaishankar said Dr. Jagdeo was assured that concerns of the Global South, which includes Guyana and other Caribbean nations, will be strongly represented during India’s G20 Presidency.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jagdeo also engaged India’s Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday.
Minister Tomar, via his official Twitter account, said “many agriculture-related issues” were discussed. And according to him, agricultural trade between the two countries is set to increase.
The Vice President also engaged members of India’s private sector.
In January, Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali visited India and engaged several top government officials including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During that visit, it was noted that India will continue to engage Guyana on a possible long-term supply deal for oil produced in the offshore Stabroek Block when Vice President Jagdeo leads another delegation to India in February.
India has been trying to ink a long-term supply deal with Guyana for more than a year now.
India, the world’s third-largest crude consumer and importer, approached Guyana’s government about a possible long-term deal to buy the South American country’s oil in 2021.
So far, the country purchased at least two lifts of oil- that is, the two consignments of the one million barrels of oil the government receives on behalf of Guyana. That contributed to the US$200 million in bilateral trade between the two countries.
President Ali, at a press conference, following his India visit said the South-Asian country would send a proposal on this soon.
