New opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Amanza Walton-Desir yesterday voiced concern over the PPP/C-led government’s recent foreign policy decisions and warned against the country being steered by the United States into foreign interventions that would be to its detriment.
During her contribution to the debate of 2020 national budget, Walton-Desir called on the government to provide answers for the intended visit to Guyana of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”
According to the MP, very recently, there have been “unprecedented levels of interference by foreign powers in our last national and regional elections. The obviously biased and at times downright disrespectful utterances have not gone unnoticed by Guyanese.”
She described as disturbing what she said “is the silence of these same foreign powers over the last few tumultuous weeks in our nation’s existence,” while noting that she is forced to wonder whether this is a desired state of affairs.
Walton-Desir said it is to be recalled that it was the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration which advanced the matter of the resolution of the Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy the farthest, to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and so a commitment to a bipartisan approach to the matter is welcomed.
She said the opposition is also pleased to see the current administration express its commitment to protecting Guyana’s sovereignty, but noted that this commitment is one that will be severely tested in the coming months.
Against this background, she charged that the recent foreign policy actions of the government are a cause for great concern, stating that from its departure from time-honoured international convention as evidenced by Guyana’s support of the US candidate for the Presidency of the IDB “to the fear of our citizenry that our beloved Guyana is about to be inserted front and centre into US geopolitical engagement, Mr. Speaker, our people deserve answers!”
On this point, she noted that while Guyana expects to have the highest official from the US to ever visit Guyana, it seems shrouded in secrecy, causing her to question why.
‘Departure’
Walton-Desir, an attorney, said that as a small developing nation Guyana has to ensure that it does not “become entangled in geopolitical interventions which can be detrimental to the people of Guyana.” “We fear, Mr. Speaker, a departure from the consistency in positions taken at the United Nations under the APNU+AFC government and a return to the erratic voting patterns which characterized Guyana’s pre-2015 international engagements,” the MP added.
She told the National Assembly that Guyana has gained much by establishing itself as a reliable partner in regional and hemispheric stability, and that it would be unwise to depart from that form of diplomacy.
Walton-Desir said that the framing of foreign policy is indispensable for the modern state and is even more the case for a small developing state such as Guyana. Foreign policy then, she said, “must perform the delicate balancing of the national interest whilst acknowledging our interdependence in an ever-contracting global village.”
The MP said that the strengthening of Guyana’s multilateral diplomacy and the improvement of its regional, hemispheric and international presence depends not only on sound policy, but also on the calibre of Foreign Service personnel. She then said that it is the view of the opposition that the study of Guyana’s international relations, the understanding of its national interest and the practice of the country’s diplomacy should not be left to chance. The country’s foreign service personnel, she added, are on the forefront of the actualization of its foreign policy and it was with this in mind that the APNU+AFC coalition government reengineered and re-established the Foreign Service Institute, “which was for all intents and purposes put on pause by the PPP/C regime…to ensure that Guyana is equipped with a corps of edified and competent diplomats.”
‘Notable achievements’
Registering what she said was her disappointment at the failure of the budget to set out a coherent comprehensive vision for Guyana’s foreign policy, Walton-Desir said that this is the context within which national development takes place.
Walton-Desir, who had served as General Counsel of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority under the former government, said it is in this regard, that one would have expected that the government would have seized the earliest opportunity to clarify its foreign policy positions to citizens. She said that the tenure of the APNU+AFC administration was characterised by a steady, studied approach to foreign relations and she advanced that there were a few notable achievements stating that it was the now-opposition which identified Guyana’s Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China as a strategic priority, which she noted resulted in Guyana’s ascension to the Chairmanship of the G77 in January.
The MP said, too, that it is the APNU+AFC coalition government which sought to place greater emphasis on diaspora engagement and to this end the Diaspora Engagement Strategy and Action Plan was finalised with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration.
Walton-Desir said, too, that it was the coalition that established the Bilateral Affairs Department as a discrete unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that since its establishment it has concluded a number of bilateral agreements over the last two years. She added that through the work of the department the then Cabinet approved the establishment of diplomatic missions in the United Arab Emirates and Ghana.
According to her, cognisant of what she described as Guyana’s ever-increasing prominence on the international stage and being committed to the promotion of international law and order, the APNU+AFC over the course of its five years in office ratified or acceded to over 25 multilateral treaties in the important areas of environmental justice, the protection of children, the protection of the marine environment and international shipping.
On this point, the MP said that given the anticipated growth in maritime traffic as a result of increasing offshore oil and gas activities as well as trade, the opposition hoped to see some emphasis being placed on planning within the maritime sector in the 2020 budget.
She posited that Maritime Spatial Planning must be given priority in the immediate term as there is “urgent need for a cross-cutting policy tool which will enable a strategic, coordinated and integrated approach to the management of our maritime space.”
Against this background, she urged the commissioning of a National Maritime and Port Sector Master Plan, which she said will serve to strengthen the international competitiveness of the maritime and port sectors, set out a plan of action for the realisation of priority projects and provide a framework for the safe, environmentally responsible management of competing interests.
