('r • ) t Ministry of Foreign Affairs • "Service within and beyond our borders" • • .. Annual Report 1999 • • ~ · ,. ./ . TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Mission Statement ................................................................................................ 3 Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 4 Department of Americas and Asia ........................................................................ 7 Economic Affairs Department ............................................................................. 20 Multilateral and Global Affairs Department .. ............................................ ............. 35 Minister's Secretariat ..................................................................... ... .................. 46 Public Affairs and Information Unit .................. ................. ........................ ......... ... 57 Administration and Finance Department .. .. ........... .......... .................................. .. 59 Protocol and Consular Affairs Department .......................................................... 61 Guyana Embassy - Beijing .................................................................................. 64 Guyana Embassy- Brasilia ............................................ .......... ........................... 71 Guyana Embassy - Brussels ............. .............................. ........................ ....... ...... 88 Guyana Embassy - Caracas ......................................................... .......... ............. 94 Guyana Embassy - Havana ............................................................................... 116 Guyana High Commission - London .................................................................. 125 Guyana Permanent Mission to the United Nations - New York ............................ 163 Guyana High Commission - Ottaw~ ................................................................... 170 Guyana Embassy - Paramaribo ........................................................................ 177 Guyana Consulate - Toronto ......................................... ..................................... 189 Guyana Embassy - Washington D.C ................................................... ............... 199 ... 2 MISSION STATEMENT .r. The Mission Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to promote and defend worldwide the interest of Guyana as follows: (a) the preservation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Guyana; (b) the promotion of the economic and social development of Guyana through financial and technical assistance; (c) the promotion of trade; (d) extending assistance to Guyanese in Guyana and abroad; :(e) the maintenance of friendly relations between Guyana and the nations of the worfd; (f) ensuring that Guyana's interests are made known and understood at all levels of international affairs; (g) the promotion of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. - •- 3 .,, • _j EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ., This Report presents an overview of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the period January to December 1999. It highlights the activities that were undertaken by the Department of the Americas and Asia, the Economic Affairs Department, the Multilateral and Global Affairs Department, the Administration and Finance Department and the Protocol and Consular Affairs Department. The major activities of Guyana's eleven overseas diplomatic missions for 1999 are also included. It was a year which featured changes in leadership at several levels. A new President H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo assumed the reigns of leadership following the resignation of incumbent President Janet Jagan in August. There were also leadership changes within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a new Director General was appointed and new Heads of Mission were assigned to Guyana's Embassies in Brazil and Cuba, the High Commission in Ottawa and the Guyana Consulate in Toronto. A number of changes also occurred at the level of representational staff at several of Guyana's overseas missions. It was against this background that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its overseas Missions endeavoured in 1999 to achieve the objectives of the Ministry. During the year under review former President Janet Jagan continued to pursue the goal of strengthening Guyana's bilateral relations with its neighbouring countries. In this regard, the President traveled to Venezuela in February to attend the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez and in March Guyana welcomed Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel who headed a delegation for the inaugural meeting of the Guyana-Venezuela High Level Bilateral Commission. President Jagan undertook a State Visit to Brazil in May for high-level discussions with President Fernando Enrique Cardoso and also visited the State of Roraima which was desirous of intensifying linkages with Guyana, mainly through the road to Brazil. In June 1999, with the support of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Guyana concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with MERCOSUR by which this country was granted Associate Membership of that economic grouping. Additionally, it was during this year that Guyana received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Suriname, Mr. Errol Snijders who led a delegation to review the progress of the Guyana-Suriname Cooperation Council. October 1999 marked the 1OO 'hAnniversary of the Arbitral Award settling the border .. 4 .. between Guyana and Venezuela. Guyana was forced to make international protests when, .,,,. under the pretext of Anniversary observances, Venezuelan aircrafts conducted unauthorized overflight activities. Bilateral relations with the wider Latin American region were steady with the most significant level of activity occurring in Guyana's cooperation programme with Cuba. The highlight was the celebration of the XX Session of the Guyana-Cuba Joint Commission and the signing of a Bilateral Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments between the two countries. In addition after many years a number of Guyanese students were able to accept offers for higher studies in Cuba under the aegis of the CARICOM-Cuba Joint Commission. In respect of hemispheric relations, Guyana's Head of State attended the first ever Summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean in Rio de Janiero in Brazil in June. Guyana as the Caribbean Community's representative on the Rio Group participated in the joint preparatory meetings for the Summit and the President of Guyana delivered a Statement on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Group of countries on the subject "Trade Negotiations and Liberalization". Also of note during the year were the visits of the Secretary-General and Director General of the Andean Community in August and the Secretary General of ALADI in November. Relations with CARICOM centred on monitoring the process of revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas while monitoring also continued in respect of the ACS, the OAS and other hemispheric organizations to which Guyana belongs. During the year under review the Ministry continued to pursue economic relations with Asia. The Seventh Session of the Guyana-China Joint Commission took place in March and relations with Japan, India, Malaysia and Korea among other countries remained stable. Diplomatic relations were established with Indonesia (and Malta). There were major achievements for Guyana during the year under review at the level of the United Nations for it was the year that Guyana assumed Chairmanship of the Group of n and China. Guyana's chairmanship was assumed at a time when the Group was planning for the first ever Summit of South Countries to be held in Havana in April 2000. In this regard, Guyana convened two major fora during the year in support of this process. These activities were an Informal High Level Consultative Meeting held in Guyana in September and a Meeting 5 ;;' ., ' c of Eminent Persons which took place in December. This was also the year in which Guyana commenced serving its three-year term on the Executive Board of UNICEF. .... 1999 was the year in which the 3rd Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation took place in Seattle, Washington. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the coordinator at the level of NACEN for Guyana's participation in this activity, held from November 30-December 3. The Ministry was also chief coordinator for Guyana's participation in the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of FTAA held in Toronto. There was careful monitoring of ACP-EU trade relations for a successor arrangement for the Lome IV agreement that was set to end in February 2000. It was also the year when, for the second time in its history, ACP countries participated in a Summit meeting in the Dominican Republic in November. During the year under review the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to pursue its mandate of coordinating donor assistance provided by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation and similar organizations. The Ministry also continued its coordinating role with regard to international volunteer organizations, namely Voluntary Service Overseas, United Nations Volunteers and Peace Corps. Additionally, the Ministry was successful during 1999 in attaining partial computerization and internet access. • 6 .~ ... • DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAS AND ASIA Review of Performance of the Department for 1999 The projections forthe