Guyana Looking To Improve Relations With Venezuela

GEORGETOWN, Guyana CMC – Guyana says it is looking to move beyond the new rice agreement in terms of trade relations with neighbouring Venezuela and will use the upcoming state visit of President Nicolas Maduro to do so.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said that while the rice agreement is working well, the Donald Ramotar government would be exploring the possibility of exporting other local products to the Spanish-speaking State.

“Venezuela has been a very good friend to Guyana and this visit will strengthen those relations,” she said.

Maduro is due here later this month on his first official visit to Guyana following his inauguration earlier this year and he will hold talks with President Ramotar on bi-lateral and international issues.

A government statement said that the two leaders will also discuss “Guyana’s associate membership with MERCUSOR, the economic and political accord linking Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay.

The discussions are also expected to include the PetroCaribe initiative, launched in 2005, under which Caracas sells oil to developing countries on concessionary terms.

Rodrigues-Birkett said despite media reports, Venezuela has given no indication thus far, of any changes with regards to the repayment policies under PetroCaribe, indicating however that this is an appropriate time for Guyana and other members of PetroCaribe to review and take stock of what has been happening.

“Guyana has been adhering to the PetroCaribe arrangement, more than many others I think… we have been supplying rice and we have been receiving oil, so in a way we have been repaying our debts,” Rodrigues-Birkett said.

Several Caribbean countries including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname benefit from the oil initiative.