French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné is scheduled to arrive here on Monday and there is speculation that it will be announced that Paris will set up a full-fledged embassy here.
France has been heightening its diplomatic presence here fuelled by growing opportunities in the oil and gas sector and the prospects of defence industry sales. The absence of an embassy by a European Union country here has also been cited as a key gap.
Two French senators who visited in January this year have called on Paris to establish an embassy here on account of Guyana’s growing economic importance and common security interests in the face of threats from Venezuela.
Writing in the February 17th edition of French weekly newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, François Bonneau, senator from Charente, and Philippe Folliot, senator from Tarn also argued for an embassy on the grounds that Guyanese have to travel to the Dutch embassy in Suriname for a Schengen visa and this
limits opportunities for the growth in business ties.
In their capacity as parliamentarians on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, they travelled to Mabaruma, the capital of Region One then journeyed three kilometres from the border with Venezuela to the villages of Yaraquita and White Water. They noted that they were the first foreign MPs to have visited the area following Venezuela’s December 3rd 2023 referendum seeking to annexe Guyana’s county of Essequibo.
Noting Guyana’s significant oil deposits which should this year place it 6th among the richest countries in the world, the senators said this makes it a “prey” for Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro through its claim to Essequibo despite the 1899 arbitral award. France, they said, cannot remain indifferent to the Venezuelan threat.
The senators wrote that Guyana, through the Essequibo region, will in the coming years be at the centre of major economic, geostrategic, social and environmental issues. They noted that a large part of Guyana’s territory is carpeted by the Amazonian forest and due to its proximity to French Guiana, France must strengthen its presence in this country and make it a major partner on all these levels.
During a first trip to Guyana last April and during their trip at the beginning of the year, they said that Guyanese authorities told them of their expectations of support, as well as of their desire to see French investments develop in their territory. The senators pointed out that a few French companies are already present, like the Amcar company in the north west, specializing in heart of palm, a major employer in the region and which
French Ambassador to Suriname and Guyana, Nicholas de Lacoste on July 13th, 2023 announced that France was upping its presence here with the establishment of a bureau which became functional from September last year.
de Lacoste made the announcement during the Bastille Day celebrations at the Georgetown Club. “It is not an embassy but we will have a permanent diplomatic presence here in Georgetown”, he said.
Asked about the possibility of the establishment of a French embassy here, de Lacoste responded that it is not impossible but it will be dependent on the number of French nationals and French enterprises here, and the development of French culture.
“We take into consideration all these parameters and if we see that the time is right for a full-fledged embassy we will do so. For now, this diplomatic bureau will be linked with the French Embassy in Paramaribo,” he further explained.
