The nation learned last Friday, by way of a press release from the Department of Public Information (DPI), that Guyana is considering purchasing hardware and military equipment from India. This is according to excerpts of an interview President Irfaan Ali did with World Is One News (WION) in New Delhi, during his recent sojourn in that Asian country to which many Guyanese have historical ties.
Further, a DPI import from the WION interview quotes President Ali as saying that Guyana has “already embarked on closer and more elaborate military-to-military cooperation with India”. It noted that several members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) have been or are now being trained in India under its Technical and Economic Cooperation programme for friendly foreign countries. These moves are part of the retooling and modernising of the GDF, the government agency stated, adding that the President is also pressing for its members to avail themselves of tertiary education.
Guyana’s defence force should be modern and well equipped in line with what the country’s requirements are. Topping the list of necessities, one would imagine, would be jungle knowledge, search and rescue, civil defence/natural disaster and military training respectively.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with our soldiers taking advantage of any training offered by India, which is ranked at number four among the top eight militaries in the world. India follows the United States, Russia and China and is rated above Japan, South Korea, France and the United Kingdom. India’s military academy is said to be top rate and non-discriminatory, although it only began accepting women in 1992 (to date they make up roughly four percent of that country’s estimated three and half million armed forces).
Meanwhile, where training is concerned, it is also worth bearing in mind this country’s ongoing cooperation with the US, which has seen military and security endeavours, some involving other Caribbean and Latin American nations, including ‘Tradewinds’, ‘New Horizons’ and last year’s Non-Commissioned Officer Jungle Symposium, co-hosted by the GDF and the US Southern Command. Meantime, though it has been on the wane for more than a decade, military cooperation with the UK had seen British officers in Guyana for joint exercises, as well as local soldiers being trained in England.
Of course, apart from defence diplomacy, political optics ought to be considered when decisions regarding military training and the purchase of equipment are on the radar. Lest we forget, India went ahead and sent a contingent of soldiers to Russia last August for military training in the midst of that country’s unjust war on Ukraine. When eyebrows went up around the world, the Indian government basically said at the time that since its soldiers had regularly participated in multilateral exercises in Russia, it saw no reason not to continue.
Although India now manufactures munitions, it has only been doing this on a large scale for approximately ten years. Despite that, its primary source of military hardware is Russia. It was only last year that the Indian government began looking to its private sector manufacturers for the supply of defence equipment. According to Reuters, on an online platform where the Indian Defence Ministry lists its needs, it sought to procure US$324 million in munitions from domestic firms.
What must also be taken into consideration is the tense relationship between India and China over their contested border in the Himalayan region. There have been several clashes between soldiers on both sides, some fatal. The latest, in December last year, saw soldiers suffering minor injuries. This is in view of the fact that Guyana has close relations with both countries and has benefited from their largesse, receiving over the last five years, military equipment, grants and Covid tests, masks and vaccines from China, as well as medical equipment and Covid vaccines from India.
While all this may appear to be unimportant at this point, there is much that must be considered including any undertakings by government and what the consequences of those actions could mean for the country, not just tomorrow, but in time to come. Naivety is an excuse that should only be used once.
