Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 17, 2017 News
The United Kingdom (UK) remains committed to working with Guyana for the benefit of both countries. In fact, the UK High Commissioner, Greg Quinn, who serves at the Queen’s pleasure, has committed to fostering even stronger relations with the country.
The commitment was made on Thursday evening during celebrations which Quinn hosted at his residence in honour of Queen Elizabeth. The fete was to commemorate the Queen’s birthday.
Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926.
President David Granger attended the event at which he saluted Britain’s support for the development of Guyana’s security sector and its struggle to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
When Quinn addressed the gathering he reflected that “last year I said that 2016 was a year of firsts for the UK-Guyana relationship. That culminated in a visit by Prince Harry in December. He still talks about the visit; the wonderful people he met; and the amazing places he saw.”
Quinn said that the Prince was extremely happy to learn that the Private Sector Commission had arranged to take the children of Joshua House (whom the Prince met) to Kaieteur Falls earlier this year. “They had never seen the falls before and I am grateful to the PSC for helping to make this happen.”
Quinn then turned his attention to where we are now. He said, “2017 has also seen some firsts. In April the President paid his first official visit to the UK and met Her Majesty The Queen at Windsor.”
Quinn said that his take from the meetings and events that Granger attended during that trip was that there is a widespread interest in Guyana amongst the UK business community “and not just in the oil and gas sector.”
The High Commissioner said that it is also important to note that the Foreign Secretary and other political figures made it clear that they are keen to ensure the UK-Guyana relationship goes from strength to strength.
“And it was a pleasure for me to host Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay in Guyana a week after the President went to the UK, a further demonstration of that strength.”
Continuing on the strength of the relationship, Quinn said, “I am also extremely happy that we launched, in earnest, our support to Security Sector Reform (SSR) earlier this year.”
UK expert, Russell Combe, took up his position as a Security Advisor to the President in January. He is scheduled to be here for one year. Quinn noted that Combe “has been working diligently in the first six months of this year. He is on the cusp of producing an interim report. His desire, shared I know by all of us, is that in addition to the more ‘strategic’ parts of his mandate, work should start on implementing some of his recommendations as soon as possible. None of us wants to see a worthy SSR report produced which simply sits on a shelf.”
Quinn said that the work being done under SSR is only part of a broader relationship that Guyana and the UK have “on combating serious organised crime through a wide range of assistance provided by, for example, the UK’s National Crime Agency, as well as support to the Guyana Defence Force.”
Further, Quinn said that significant UK funds are being committed to security areas and to broader development funding. “There is over £61m of DFID expenditure expected to take place in Guyana over the next five years.”
Challenges that remain
Quinn said that the road ahead is still long. “There remain challenges for us all. As Prince Harry saw when he met teenage mothers and others, there are still clear cases of abuse of women and children in Guyana.”
He continued, “As someone in Guyana told me, it is time for people to understand that women and girls are not commodities, and that those who treat them as such should be punished. There can be no impunity from prosecution if a crime has been committed. No one is above the law.”
Also Quinn acknowledged that two Thursdays ago saw a General Election in the UK. “The announcement of that election was certainly a bit of a surprise for all of us. But the Prime Minister was re-elected and will take forward her programme. We can expect some more details about that in the Queen’s Speech to Parliament next week.” (Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell)
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