Guyana signs five-year Basic Framework Agreement with Russian Federation

Guyana through its foreign affairs minister, Carl Greenidge recently signed a five-year Basic Framework Agreement with the Russian Federation following fruitful discussions covering a range of things involving bilateral cooperation is a number of areas.

The minister was at the time speaking to media operatives at a press conference held on Friday last.

He noted that “I think we saw eye to eye on these things including the question of peace and security in the region, that was discussed extensively and we agreed that we need to continue to exchange information and collaborate in tackling these areas. We also touched on Russian Federation/Caricom cooperation, as you know the Federation has observer status in Caricom and there are programmes collaboration with Caricom.”

The two nations also discussed current projects and possible ways to improve them. The minister said his Russian counterpart agreed to facilitate post graduate training in engineering.

“We also discussed the question of energy, it is a global issue, it is a global challenge the problem of energy as well as the problem of water and in the case of the energy issue, we did ask whether the Russian Federation would be interested in and would be willing to lend us assistance by way of the establishment of or construction of facilities for the generation of energy,” Greenidge explained.

Greenidge said the Russians expressed willingness to assist in this sector and Government also gave its commitment to provide the necessary details. The matter, the Minister said has to be discussed at two levels, with the ambassador and a Russian firm which has also shared its interest in cooperating with this country in this regard.

The Foreign Affairs minister also attended the St. Petersburg Forum where matters including the region, Caricom and Guyana were raised and how these could be addressed holistically.

Additionally, the minister informed that discussions were conducted with several Russian firms in a view to exploring possible areas of mutual cooperation.