Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Deborah Backer of APNU has called on government to strengthen the Guyana Defence Force to better defend the country’s territorial integrity, saying Guyana might have already become an oil producing nation if this had been done.
“A Partnership for National Unity recommends and history demands that our Guyana Defence Force once again attain a capacity that can enhance our diplomatic leverage and economic activities.
Had the Guyana Defence Force had that capacity in June 2000, it would have been able to repel the unlawful attack by Surinamese gunboats on the CGX oil rig, which was operating in our territorial waters. This incapacity by our army has resulted in oil exploration in that area being delayed by seven years. Had CGX been allowed uninterrupted exploration Guyana may today have been an oil producing country, rather than one poised to do so,” she told the National Assembly on Thursday when the budget debate continued.
Backer said also that government must also address as a high priority the back track operation between Guyana and Suriname. She reminded that the unhindered flow of un-customed goods, undeclared gold, illegal drugs and guns and illegal immigrants are as much a threat to our sovereignty and territorial integrity as Venezuela and Suriname’s unjust border claims.
In addition, Backer called for the government to seek to put the border controversy between Suriname and Guyana on the Caricom agenda and for the establishment of formal engagements between government and opposition on issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity. This, she said, is with a view to obtaining national consensus. “Sir, we believe that if our recommendations along with those of the government, the Alliance for Change and other stakeholders are impartially discussed and the best recommendations implemented, the end result will be a Foreign Affairs Ministry that is second to none and fully able to fulfil the ministry’s mandate,” she said. Backer stated too that a Foreign Affairs Ministry so enhanced can play a role in boosting trade and investment with Guyana.
Highly qualified
Backer also called for the recall of former ministers Ronald Gajraj and Khelawan Lall from diplomatic postings in India and Brazil, respectively.
“Given the global economic rearrangement that has seen the emergence of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries and other emerging nations, A Partnership for National Unity believes that it is imperative that our missions in Brazil and India be headed by our most competent and highly qualified diplomats, who can take the lead role in encouraging trade and investment in Guyana,” she said.
“Sir, by no stretch of the imagination can the words ‘accomplished’ and ‘highly qualified’ be attributed to either High Commissioners Khelawan Lall or Ronald Gajraj. We therefore urge this Government to quickly remove and replace them.
Mr. Speaker, these two missions are too critical to be used as rewards for party loyalists who performed poorly in Guyana,” Backer added.
She said that APNU noted the appointment of Professor David Dabydeen as ambassador to China and urged government to soon establish diplomatic relations with South Africa. “The establishment of such a mission will advance not only trade and investment in South Africa but also enable Guyana to more easily develop economic and trading ties with other African countries, many of whom have fast-growing economies,” she explained.
