Guyana Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo reaches India to boost diplomatic ties

New Delhi, India: Bharrat Jagdeo, vice president of Guyana, came to India on Monday to advance bilateral ties between the two nations.

“We extend a cordial welcome to Guyana’s vice president Bharrat Jagdeo upon his arrival in India,” tweeted spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arindam Bagchi. According to the ministry, the trip would further boost people-to-people ties and bilateral collaboration between India and Guyana.

Incidentally, on January 10, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebration in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, included Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali as its chief guest. The Convention, the Union government’s signature event, offers a crucial forum for engagement with and connections to Indians living abroad and allows the diaspora to communicate with one another.

This year’s PBD Conference was centred upon the idea of “Diaspora: Dependable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal.” A total of about 70 countries’ worth of diaspora members—more than 3,500—registered for the PBD Convention.

Ramnath Kovind, who was president at the time, made the first-ever visit by an Indian president to the CARICOM country earlier in July 2022. The Caribbean Community, also known as CARICOM, Caribbean Community and Common Market, was founded on July 4, 1973, by the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago are the 15 countries that makeup CARICOM.

There is a bigger potential for economic connections through commerce, according to recent developments. There is no denying that China currently has a significant economic impact in the Caribbean, but India’s population is expected to equal that of China by 2030, and it can offer a sizable market thanks to its expanding middle class.

The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, Guyana, and Barbados are among India’s top export destinations, and these countries also import heavily from the region into India. To CARICOM, India primarily exports pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, machinery, and equipment. India imports a significant amount of crude oil, gold, metalliferous ores, and scrap from CARICOM.

India can undoubtedly benefit from purchasing and remodelling hotels in the CARICOM region, which is a very popular tourist destination. Ayurveda and yoga investments in the popular Indian style. The majority of Guyanese are descended from Indians who were transported to the Caribbean beginning in 1838 as contract labourers on sugar plantations following the abolition of slavery in the region’s British possessions.

In Guyana, a large portion of the population speaks Guyanese Creole, an English-based creole with African, Indian, and Amerindian syntax. Several Indo-Guyana continued to speak and learn Guyanese Hindustani for cultural and religious reasons.