Todd and Walton-Desir spar over foreign policy and migration situation

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd defended the Government’s Foreign Policy, while launching an attack on Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) Member of Parliament, Amanza Walton-Desir, after she highlighted the loop holes in the current system, and called for an integrated foreign policy framework that addresses new and emerging challenges.

Rising to make his contributions to the National Budget Debate on Wednesday evening, Minister Todd told the National Assembly that Walton-Desir has zero experience in foreign relations, and may have resorted to elementary text on international relations in an attempt to school the House on foreign policy and inter-state relations.

He said included in the Budget is an allocation of $10.035 Billion for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The sum, he said, represents an 88% increase over a five year period, and reflects Government’s commitment to advancing its Foreign Policy Agenda.

He said the foreign policy remains a key pillar of Guyana’s national development.

“Our Foreign policy is a key pillar for national development, social advancement, economic development, and Mr. Speaker as a Government, we believe in policies that can be backed by data, in some cases backed by science, empirical evidence, backed by people, and that is why we have been successful in our national policies,” Minister Todd said.

While intermittently ridiculing MP Walton-Desir for voting in support of the Opposition Leader, Azruddin Mohamed, who has been indicted in a US Court, and is now facing extradition, Minister Todd said the country’s foreign policy remains active and responsive to emerging issues in the international environment.

“Foreign Policy never stops. You have to continuously work at it, keep developing it, and executing it. The international environment is never static, Mr. Speaker, following the trends, understanding the complexities of inter-state relations, understanding the complexities of geo-politics, the shifts in political systems and landscapes means therefore that you always have to be on the ball,” he told the House.

He said the country’s successes have been well received by regional and international partners. On the important issue of the safeguarding the country’s sovereign and territorial integrity, the Foreign Affairs Minister disclosed that $100 Million has been allocated to safeguarding Guyana’s borders.

In her presentation that preceded Minister Todd’s contribution, MP Walton-Desir said Guyana is no longer operating on the margins but rather at the centre of global attention.

She said as a young petroleum producing state, the country’s economic profile has changed, in addition to its exposure to geopolitical risks and diplomatic pressure.

MP Walton-Desir said in the circumstances, the country’s foreign policy could no longer be treated as routine and administrative but rather as “national risk management.”

She told the House that the Budget maintains an old pre-oil approach to diplomacy, one that is incremental, administrative and insufficiently strategic for the risks that Guyana now faces.

MP Walton Desir said Guyana needs a Standing Foreign Policy Relations Council as an instrument of preparedness, not just as another committee.

“This council would integrate all of the legal, diplomatic, security, energy and migration expertise into a single permanent structure capable of coordinating across agencies, stress testing assumptions and protecting our credibility before our interests are tested,” MP Walton-Desir said.

It was submitted to the House that the first pillar of any serious foreign policy in a petroleum-era Guyana must be the protection of its sovereignty and national interest, and the Opposition remains in full support of the country’s resort to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Our sovereignty rests on the strength of international law, credible diplomacy, strong institutions, and alliances that reinforce legitimacy. That is precisely why sovereignty must be treated as a capability of preparedness. By preparedness, I mean the legal, institutional and strategic capacity to anticipate pressure, coordinate responses and defend national interests before a crisis becomes confrontation,” MP Walton-Desir said.

She said the Government is big on “photo ops” but warned that diplomats, though observing protocols, and in doing so remain cordial, judge leaders based on their actions, and their credibility.

“Mr. Speaker when media freedoms are restricted, they clock it. When parliament is reduced to a rubber stamp, they clock it. When our journalists are sidelined, they clock it. And when Mr. Speaker, we go and we address parliament in another country, in a joint session, without the courtesy of addressing our own parliament at home, the international community, they clock it. They clock it, and they hold it against us,” she said.

The FGM MP also took aim at the Government’s Migration Policy. MP Walton-Desir said she had long warned about the unchecked influx of migrants into the country.

Today, she said the situation has deteriorated.

“This Government behaves like un-managed migration is compassion, oh let them come. It is not compassion, its poor governance. And the thing about poor governance is that it never bothers the government first because they sit in their ivory towers, with their sirens going through and they parting traffic. Poor governance affects the people first, we feel it first,” she said.

MP Walton-Desir said it is important to ensure the entry of migrants is properly managed, explaining that already in the absence of a clear policy, and proper management, education, health, public and social services in the country have become overwhelmed.

Added to that, she said Government must be transparent on its foreign policies and agreements, noting that Guyanese must not be made to learn of those agreements in the foreign press, as she referenced a recent agreement between Guyana and the US to accept nationals from a third state.