PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar continued his bilateral discussions in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s 67th debate.
And yesterday, he and Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett met with Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, and a delegation to discuss a wide range of issues. Among the discussions were the Iwokrama rainforest project and the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka next year.
In a brief comment, Sharma said that the meeting with President Ramotar was “very fruitful” and touched on several issues, including observing Guyana’s elections over the years.
“There are lots to discuss always, and we covered the grounds, environment, elections and other areas of cooperation, particularly in the CHOGM that is coming next year, so it was a very rich discussion,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, President Ramotar also noted that the discussions were very successful and he is satisfied with the outcome. He recalled Guyana’s long-standing relationship with the organisation, dating back since to independence.
“We have been an active participant in Commonwealth activities, conferences and meetings in different parts of the world. My discussion with the Secretary General focused on some issues as it relates to Iwokrama. These issues, we are trying to have them resolved at this point in time; we also talked about their elections mission in Guyana, the observations they make … we spoke generally about Commonwealth issues and the upcoming conference next November, where we hope that we can push the Commonwealth to be even more active in international affairs, because it’s a very big organisation, it has a lot of international influence, so we will see what could be done,” the Head of State said.
The Iwokrama Centre came into being in 1996, following the signing of an international agreement between the Guyana Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat, with the mandate to “promote the conservation and the sustainable and equitable use of tropical rainforests in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”. (GINA)