Is the United States dictating Guyana’s foreign policy?

Sep 29, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Guyana has announced that it is seeking to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. But what will be the price that it will pay for this representation.

Guyana has twice before been such a member. It has the distinction of being the first CARICOM member state to hold a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

It usually takes extended and intense lobbying to contest such seats. Campaigning is not often announced beforehand. As such, it is not clear whether Guyana’s ambitions regarding a non-permanent seat on the Security Council predated the PPP/C’s administration or whether it was the APNU+AFC which initiated this process.

What is most coincidental, however, is the timing of Guyana’s announcement with something which US President Joseph Biden said. In his address to this year’s General Assembly of the United Nations, the US President supported increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council. He specifically mentioned that the United States supports permanent seats for countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Not long after Biden’s remarks, President Ali of Guyana signalled Guyana’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Was this just coincidence or is the United States dictating Guyana’s foreign policy? The answer to that may be partly answered if the former APNU+AFC had begun lobbying for a place on the UN Security Council.

When a country decides to contest for a seat on the Security Council, it must have a candidate in mind. So just who does Guyana have in mind? It makes no sense Guyana being on the Security Council if it is going to hand this position to a diplomatic lightweight. When countries decide to throw their weight behind another country’s candidacy, they often consider the country’s foreign policy but also factor in the likely representative, even though this is not a formal requirement. Does Guyana have a diplomatic heavyweight to be its representative on the UN Security Council?

The United States, as a global power, would be equally concerned about the prospective representative. But it would be more concerned about the foreign policy stance of the Guyana government and how aligned this is to US foreign policy objectives.

It is now evident that the United States is exerting increasing influence on Guyana’s foreign policy. As has been reported in the newspapers, Guyana supported the US candidate for President of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The closer alignment between US and Guyana’s foreign policy interests began weeks after the Irfaan Ali administration was sworn into office. Then US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo paid a visit to Guyana during which he made some stinging remarks about China.

The Guyana President stood there and did not rebuke or distance himself from those remarks. Since then, there has been a noticeable thaw in relations between Guyana and China. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Guyana’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China but instead of grand celebrations, the event appears to be observed in a relatively subdued manner.

There was even an attempt to establish a Taiwan office in Guyana. But this was later aborted after China expressed its concern.

Guyana has also gone cold when it comes to supporting CARICOM’s oil diplomacy with Venezuela. Guyana has indicated no intention to rejoin Petrocaribe – an oil alliance between Venezuela and other Caribbean states which allowed for the purchase of Venezuelan fuel. US pressure played a role in removing countries from that arrangement.

Some Caribbean states have expressed an interest in reviving the initiative. In fact, the Heads of State of CARICOM called for the removal of US sanctions from Venezuela to allow many of their countries to renew the arrangements for the purchase of oil from that country. Guyana has remained lukewarm towards pressing for the removal of US sanctions against Venezuela even though it knows that Venezuelan petrol sales are important to energy security in the region.

There has also been a noticeable downgrading of relations between Guyana and Cuba. This too fits into a pattern of greater alignment of Guyana’s foreign policy with that of the United States.

A few weeks ago, a high-level delegation led by the President, held discussions with the new US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. The two sides were said to have discussed food and energy security, the environment, good governance and inclusive growth. But it is also likely that there were discussions about Cuba and Venezuela.

The key question is whether the United States will throw its support behind Guyana for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Much will depend on the prospective representative even though this is not a formal criterion since it is countries rather than representatives that are elected. Once the US throws its support behind Guyana, the deal is done. But how much will Guyana have to succumb to US interests?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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