More than half a century of relatively staid diplomatic relations between Guyana and India, as two independent nations, would appear set to shift gears to an extent that goes beyond the mostly uneventful cordiality derived from a mutual acknowledgement of the centuries-old historic ties between the two countries. Post-independence, the Commonwealth was the formal ‘glue’ that tied Guyana to India. For its part Guyana, in a host of socio-cultural ways acknowledged, even celebrated, the ethnic ties between the two countries that derived from indentureship. Guyana’s recent accession to the status of an oil-producing country has begun to alter the international media’s ‘banana republic’ image of the country, the changing perspective linked to evidence that, these days, the country has manifestly more to offer.
To India’s half a century plus of diplomatic relations with Guyana and the earlier, deeper historic ties, have now been added a tangible mutual strategic connection. India is the third largest consumer of oil globally, and while the country possesses its own considerable reserves, the energy ‘jitters’ arising out of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the less than convivial relationship which it now enjoys with the ‘big players’ in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) means that the demands of its continually expanding economy place ready access to oil high on the list of the country’s economy. Indications of India’s particular interest in Guyana as a long-term oil supplier were apparent ever since it purchased the first consignment sold by Guyana – one million barrels of ‘Liza Light’ Sweet Crude – back in 2021. Even back then it was apparent that this was unlikely to be a ‘one-off’ deal.
Back in January this year President Irfaan Ali announced that his government was about to entertain a proposal from the Indian government for the long-term purchase of oil from Guyana. More recently, it was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, widely regarded as the country’s oil ‘Czar,’ who announced at a media briefing that bilateral deals on oil sales and other forms of energy sector cooperation between Guyana and India were in the making. He confirmed, as well, that the envisaged closer industrial and business ties between Guyana and India would also extend into the agricultural sector. With Guyana’s sugar industry having, for several years been a less than substantial contributor to Guyana’s economy, Jagdeo told the assembled media that the new chapters in the relationship between Guyana and India now went beyond the sale of oil to that country. It would, he said, extend into the realm of Indian support for the shoring up of Guyana’s sugar industry.
Jagdeo disclosed that India’s considerable experience in the sector will, going forward, be pressed into service here in an effort to salvage a sector which, truth be told, many Guyanese had long ‘written off’ even as they began to fix their attention on the country’s new-found oil bonanza. Conceivably, the India ‘option’ may well turn out to be the ‘game-changer’ in what has been a protracted discourse on the matter of whether sugar stays or goes. Guyana, it seems, would appear to be on the verge of a deal with India in which there is something significant for both sides. For India, access to Guyana’s oil helps to provide assurances that the country’s credentials as a First World, industrialized nation will remain intact. For Guyana, it is a matter of the meaningful deepening of a bilateral relationship that long predates the context in which it now appears to be fixed.
