GEORGETOWN: Guyana, India could work collectively to strengthen democracies

GEORGETOWN: Speaker of India’s Lower House,
or Lok Sabha, as it is referred to there, Om Birla, has said that Guyana and
India could explore the possibility of working together to strengthen their
democracies.

Mr Birla
pitched this idea during an engagement with Guyana’s Speaker of the National
Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, who, along with a team of local officials, represented
Guyana at the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, held in
Austria.

The two
Speakers exchanged pleasantries and discussed the close ties between Guyana and
India.

According
to the High Commission of India, India’s relations with Guyana are “warm and
cordial” with a high degree of understanding. The interaction is structured
through periodic joint commissions, foreign office consultations, cultural
exchange programmes and ITEC, among other things.

With
India being considered a model democracy which has had 17 general elections and
300 assembly elections, Birla believes that India and Guyana could work
together to strengthen their democracies. He also said that the people of the
two nations could learn from each other, both culturally and economically.

Speaker
Nadir agreed with Birla and said that people from both countries could benefit
economically and culturally once there is access to opportunities.

Both
Speakers pledged to continue to have dialogue on strengthening the institution
of Parliament in the two countries with exchange programmes to learn from each
other’s best practices, and to maintain the strong bond shared over the years.

Nadir
also spoke of the close relationship between Guyana and India, highlighting
that India is one of Guyana’s largest donors.