EU, Guyana in political dialogue on Cotonou Agreement

Oct 16, 2018 News

Foreign Ministry and EU officials at the meeting yesterday

The Sixth Round of European Union-Guyana Political Dialogue in the framework of Article 8 of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States/European Union (ACP-EU) Cotonou Agreement took place yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The previous round of the Political Dialogue took place a year ago, in October 2017.
The Guyanese delegation was headed by Carl Greenidge, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Audrey Jardine-Waddell, Director General; Troy Torrington, Director, Multilateral & Global Affairs Department and other Heads of Departments within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives of key Government Ministries.
The EU side was headed by the Ambassador of the European Union Jernej Videtič and Ambassadors of the UK, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
According to a joint statement, the objectives of the dialogue are to exchange information to foster mutual understanding and to facilitate the establishment of agreed priorities and shared agendas, in particular by recognising the existing links between the different aspects of the relations between the parties and the various areas of cooperation as laid down in the Cotonou Agreement.
“The two sides engaged in constructive, wide-ranging and frank discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues such as political developments and economic affairs; EU-Guyana and regional development cooperation; consular matters, governance and human rights issues including the death penalty, children’s rights, women’s rights, LGBTI issues, domestic abuse, prison conditions; trafficking in persons; security, climate change, and regional integration.”
According to the statement, the two sides give their continued commitment to an international order based on multilateralism and undertook to continue cooperation in this regard and welcomed the forthcoming initialling of the Voluntary Partnership on FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade), which will represent a milestone in cooperation on sustainable management of the forests.
They also discussed the possible accession of Guyana to the International Energy Charter.
The two sides concluded by expressing their satisfaction on the usefulness of the Dialogue in the context of EU-Guyanese relations, and have agreed to hold the next round of Political Dialogue in one year’s time.

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