Guyana President Holds Talks With New US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – President Irfaan Ali has held talks with the new United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, saying that the discussions on Monday covered a number of areas.

rubicguyPresident Irfaan Ali (left) and New US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. (Photo courtesy Department of Public Information Guyana)“I had the opportunity to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I reiterated our support for the extended partnership in energy, security, democracy, and Regional prosperity,” Ali said in a brief post on his Facebook page.

But US State Department spokesman, Tammy Bruce, said the discussions addressed “the crisis of illegal migration and agreed to jointly address this regional imperative and challenge. “The Secretary affirmed the United States’ steadfast support of Guyana’s territorial integrity in the face of Nicolás Maduro and his cronies’ bellicose actions,”  Bruce added.

Guyana and Venezuela have a long standing border dispute, with Caracas claiming ownership of the Essequibo – an oil-rich region that makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens.

The two countries are before the ICJ concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 … which is pending before it.

The case, which was filed by Guyana in March 2018, seeks the court’s decision on the validity of the Arbitral Award which finally determined the land boundary between the two countries. The court has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the controversy and will decide the issue on the merits of the case.

The discussion came as Colombia on Sunday backed down from refusing to accept deportees from the United States after President Donald Trump threatened to impose stiff tariffs on goods entering the US from Colombia.

The White House said the threat was a warning to other countries, including those in the Caribbean, that may decline to accept deportees as part of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Colombia President Gustavo Petro had declined to accept on Sunday two US military aircrafts carrying Colombian deportees but later capitulated after Trump threatened to impose up to 50 percent tariffs on Colombian goods entering the US.

“We have overcome the impasse with the United States government,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo in a statement.

“We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens subject to rights.”

Meantime, the president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council on Sunday described as “catastrophic” the Trump administration’s plans to deport Haitians in mass or to curtail aid to the violence-wracked, impoverished, French-speaking Caribbean country.

On the Presidential campaign trail, Trump had threatened mass deportation of Haitians and other migrants living illegally in the US.

The US State Department said Secretary Rubio also spoke on Monday with the Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic Roberto Alvarez “to reaffirm the United States’ strong partnership with the Dominican Republic, and to discuss his upcoming visit to Santo Domingo.

“Secretary Rubio thanked the Dominican Republic for agreeing to host the next Summit of the Americas and Cities Summit,” the State Department said, adding that Rubio also discussed with Alvarez “the need to strengthen hemispheric security, including in Haiti.”

In the wake of the US new foreign policy agenda, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on the Trump administration to consider “additional exemptions” to a directive that pauses nearly all foreign aid for 90 days.

The UN noted that Trump’s executive order a week ago called for all foreign aid to be re-evaluated to ensure that it complies with his new foreign policy priorities.

The UN said the US government is the largest single donor of aid in the world, disbursing around US$72 billion in assistance during 2023.

It also reportedly provided more than 40 per cent of all humanitarian aid accounted for by the UN during 2024, the UN said.