Days after the Surinamese Foreign Minister summoned Guyana’s Ambassador to Suriname over reports of the Guyana Government planning a number of development projects in the New River Triangle area, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Todd, met today met with Suriname’s Ambassador to Guyana Liselle Blankendal.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry explained that during the meeting, Minister Todd outlined Guyana’s national policy framework that addresses the provision of social services including education and healthcare and existing infrastructure to facilitate humanitarian support and other emergency relief services, to remote communities within Guyana’s territory.
The Minister and Ambassador also discussed advancing the bilateral cooperation agenda through the Strategic Dialogue Cooperation Platform (SDCP) including the bridging of the Corentyne River and preparations for the convening of a Meeting of the Border Commission between Guyana and Suriname.
The next meeting of the Strategic Dialogue Cooperation Platform between the two countries is scheduled to take place in February 2025.
The MOU establishing that platform was signed by Guyana and Suriname during a Presidential visit to Suriname in November 2020 with the aim of enhancing cooperation through the establishment of several working groups on a number of areas, including infrastructure, agriculture, security, health, trade and the environment.
Last week in Suriname, the Surinamese Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin summoned Guyana’s ambassador to protest plans by the Guyana Government to build an airstrip and a school in the area known as the New River Triangle.
The Surinamese Foreign Minister said the presence of Guyanese in the New River Triangle area violates agreements made in 1970.
On Sunday, President Irfaan Ali spoke of the development plans for Camp Jaguar in the area. He said there are people living in the area who are in need of service and supplies.
“Right now the infrastructure to service them, to have food and humanitarian aid go in there- is posing a tremendous challenge for the people living there”, he said.
Suriname continues to lay claim to the area located in the upper Corentyne.
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