Visits to India over a brief period, first, President, Irfaan Ali and afterwards by his Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, have provided unmistakable signs of the intention of the now oil-rich South American republic to significantly strengthen existing ties with India, through the vehicle of the local oil and gas industry. While India and Guyana may have established formal diplomatic ties a mere fifty-seven years ago, links between the two countries date back to the colonial era when East Indians arrived in the former British colony to provide indentured labour for the local sugar plantations. The contribution of the earliest waves of Indian arrivals to shaping what is now a fast-emerging twenty-first century modern state is clear to see in various aspects of social, economic and political life. Going forward, the portents for the future of relations between India and Guyana appear to repose, largely, in the coincidence between India’s circumstance as the world’s third largest oil consumer and Guyana’s position as one of the ‘rising stars’ among global oil producers.
