Food security, energy & climate concerns require united focus – Finance Minister

Countries across the globe are affected by three major crises – food insecurity, energy woes and the climate crises – and Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh says countries with common interests must unite to tackle these issues.

The Finance Minister spoke in Mauritania at the 49th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday.

The OIC brings together countries from around the world with significant Muslim populations and it considers a wide range of global issues and concerns.

At that meeting, Dr. Singh highlighted how badly affected countries are by the three crises. According to him, widespread flooding in Pakistan, earthquakes in Türkiye and northern Syria and the fallout from the Ukraine/ Russia crisis are examples of disasters hitting countries.

Because of these ongoing challenges, Dr. Singh called on partners to carefully deliberate the issues and determine ways of working together.

“Guyana wishes success to this meeting and hopes that emerging out of this Session will be an intensified resolve for our membership to better coordinate our positions on global concerns and to speak increasingly with a singular voice on matters of shared interest,” Dr. Singh told the meeting.

After his presentation, the Finance Minister told the News Room that Guyana has a very strong stance on the three issues, calling for fairness in how solutions are crafted.

And according to him, it was evident that Guyana shares several common interests with many countries around the world.

“The issues that concern us are not different from the issues that concern so many countries around the world,” he said.

Aside from his participation in the meeting, the Finance Minister also held key bilateral discussions with partners.

Talks were held with the Minister of State of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Khalifa Shahine and the Qatari State Minister for Foreign Affairs Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi.

Those meetings, Dr. Singh said, were characterised by “an extremely cordial and very positive atmosphere”.