Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has explained that Guyana will continue to build its defence capability through increased investment in the Guyana Defence Force, and enhanced defence diplomacy with its international partners. 

Speaking to reporters recently, Mr. Jagdeo said Guyana made its position known during the Argyle Talks with Venezuela in St Vincent and the Grenadines. 

“So, we made it clear that we are not planning to attack Venezuela or any other country for that matter but we will continue to pursue defence cooperation with our allies, purely in a defensive capacity to ensure that our country is capable, with our partners, of defending itself,” the Vice President told reporters during a recent press conference. 

In recent weeks, Guyana has been in talks with the Americans and British among other key allies regarding increased military support. 

The country intends to expand its reach beyond borders while establishing dynamic relationships with countries around the world to build a security architecture that is modern, realistic and relevant to the needs of Guyana and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Mr Jagdeo said, in this regard, investment is critical.

“We will have to increase our investments in the military but our investments are of a purely defensive nature and we had long planned this, and we have already started implementing this,” Mr Jagdeo said. 

He said contrary to the narrative being peddled by Venezuela, the move to enhance Guyana’s military capability was part of the country’s agenda. 

“When we found out that we were losing over $100 million per year in illegal fishing in our Exclusive Economic Zone, we made commitments to ensure that we can purchase radar capability and other capability as well as interceptor capability but it wasn’t done for going to war with Venezuela, it is for policing our exclusive economic zone and exercising sovereignty over our exclusive economic zone and the 83,000 square miles of our country,” he explained. 

He said notwithstanding the Argyle Declaration, Guyana must pursue its agenda of building in capability to defend itself. Venezuela, however, has since accused Guyana, of breaching the “Argyle Agreement.” Guyana, however, has rejected such claims. 

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