The Guyana Government and the European Union (EU) engaged in discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern on February 19 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The talks represented the third round of the EU-Guyana political dialogue in the framework of Article 8 of the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett led the Guyana delegation which also included Director General Elisabeth Harper; Director, Department of the Americas, Ambassador Audrey Waddell; Director (ag) Multilateral and Global Affairs Department, Deborah Yaw; Director, Department of Foreign Trade, Rajdai Jaggernauth; Chief of Protocol, Esther Griffith and Acting Head of the Frontiers Department Donnette Streete.
The EU party was headed by Ambassador Robert Kopecky, Head of the EU Delegation, and included British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre; Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Stefan Schlueter and Beatriz Lorenzo Didic, Charge d’Affaires (ai) at the Embassy of Spain who are both resident in Trinidad and Tobago; and Carole Lucas, Charge d’Affaires (ai) at the Embassy of France and Floor Nuiten, Political Counsellor at the Embassy of the Netherlands, both resident in Suriname. The Head of the Political Section in the EU Delegation to Guyana Derek Lambe also participated.
According to a joint press statement, the objectives of the dialogue are to exchange information to foster mutual understanding and to facilitate the establishment of agreed priorities and shared agendas, in particular by recognising the existing links between the different aspects of the relations between the parties and the various areas of cooperation as laid down in the Cotonou Agreement. Discussions included political and economic developments in Guyana and the EU; EU-Guyana and regional development cooperation; human rights and governance; security, climate change and regional integration.
The two groups said they were satisfied with the usefulness and continuity of the dialogue in the context of the EU-Guyana relations, and have agreed to host the next dialogue in one year’s time. The previous rounds of dialogue took place in 2009 and 2010.
