Guyana and Brazil prepare bilateral summit to strengthen ties

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Guyana‘s President Irfaan Ali has expressed his desire to achieve a solid strategic partnership with Brazil, a country with which a bilateral summit will be held later this month to strengthen ties in different areas.

Ali stressed to President Jair Bolsonaro the two countries’ willingness to improve their relations in the economic sphere and other critical sectors for regional development during a teleconference between the two, the Georgetown government reported Tuesday.

“We need to aspire to a strong strategic partnership between our two countries,” Ali said.

“We have several important opportunities, both for Guyana and for Brazil, that I wanted to highlight even before our meeting so that our technical teams can start working,” the president added.

Ali listed several critical areas for the two countries to advance their relationship, including energy and food security, telecommunications, and trade.

He noted that in addition to oil and gas, expanding opportunities in other non-oil natural resource sectors, such as bauxite, will create an opportunity to increase Guyana’s connection with northern Brazil and the Atlantic.

“Concerning trade, there is currently a partial scope agreement in place that aims to promote bilateral flows through the exchange of tariff preferences between the two countries, economic cooperation, and greater private sector participation,” he stressed.

Irfaan Ali also said that expanding the rice export quota to Brazil is under negotiation.

He maintained that the agenda with Bolsonaro looks very promising and that he will ensure that technicians from relevant ministries in Brazil travel to the summit to be held in Georgetown later this month.

The Guyanese president recently announced a regional summit with Guyana, Brazil, Suriname, and French Guiana representatives. The countries should agree on a framework for energy cooperation.

In addition, in December last year, President Ali spoke of massive bauxite deposits in Region Six of Guyana and along the Corentyne River in Suriname, making new economic agreements between the two countries possible.

With information from EFE