Latest update June 17th, 2026 12:40 AM
Our Foreign Affairs
Maybe on account of what its name suggests, the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have always been a bit of a mystery to the average Guyanese citizen. There is forever a bit of puzzlement at the announcement during the annual budget presentations as to what exactly the billions of dollars expended on that Ministry deliver for the nation.
The mission statement of the Ministry does not offer much help: “to promote the interests of Guyana within the international community …preserving the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and …contributing to the economic and social development of the Guyanese people.”
To the outsider, the President and various functionaries within his office seem to be in the forefront of promoting our interests in the international community (LCDS et al) and the Ministry had been very reactive when Guyanese were being hounded out of Barbados.
But it is the “economic development of the Guyanese people” bit that raises the most eyebrows (and hackles). Exactly when was the last time that the Ministry and its far-flung missions fulfilled that task? None comes to mind. Or does the unilateral cut in our sugar price by the EU and its replacement by EPA’s count?
We hope that it is this gaping hole in the fulfilment of its mission that is the rationale behind the three-day Conference of the heads of Guyana’s overseas embassies, high commissions and consulates that has been convened at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
We were informed that the theme of the conference is: “Repositioning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to effectively promote the national interest.” There is no greater “national interest” at the present time than fostering our economic development: our 114th place on the UNDP ranking only confirms what all of us experience daily – mass poverty.
Some years ago, we had proposed that in addition to fostering peace and goodwill onto other nations, our well paid (and heeled) diplomats and missions dedicate a portion of their space and staff to finding and securing markets for our products. This suggestion was no great brain wave that needed grounding in rocket science – every foreign embassy and mission in our country, after all, performed that function for their nation.
In fact, it invariably was their main activity – in addition to turning down visa requests. Trade, we were assured, made the world go round but why, we asked, the trade had to be only promoted one way?
Nothing happened for a while, and then suddenly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staged a spin-off – the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation. We were a bit confused about the “cooperation” mandate but enthused about what we thought was to be a new singular focus on trade.
We ignored the cynics that suggested a sinecure was simply being secured for an old party faithful (Rohee) and waited for the missions that would fan out across the globe to peddle our wares.
Sadly it was not to be: our new foreign legion attended interminable world summits on trade from DOHA to Minsk without even a pineapple being hocked. The salaries expanded. Then just as suddenly, the Ministry was folded up and we still do not know if its globetrotting mission for world trade cooperation has been re-integrated into the mother Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the extremely qualified Ms Carolyn Rodrigues.
We have a sneaking suspicion that the “Repositioning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to effectively promote the national interest” theme of the ongoing conference is simply to bring all our well-paid foreign servants to read from the same page on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). Now we have stated several times in this space that we are behind the President on this initiative. It is just that we have cautioned him that in these matters it is not too wise to place all of one’s eggs (not to mention forests) in one basket.
In addition to the LCDS, we hope that all the Heads of Missions will be given clear marching orders to begin promoting our goods. They must open trade desks in each mission without further delay.
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.