France will soon open an embassy in Guyana, an unprecedented move “for a member country of the European Union”, announced the Center d’Orsay ahead of a visit to the country by the head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Cezournet.

The French Foreign Minister is visiting Georgetown today and will make the announcement during talks with President Irfan Ali and his counterpart Hugh Todd, which will focus “on international crises”: Haiti, Ukraine and the Middle East.

Guyana currently holds the presidency of the Caribbean Community of States (CARICOM), amid the public security and political crisis in Haiti. He is also a member of the UN Security Council.

“The minister knows that he can find an interlocutor in Guyana in order to advance the efforts of the international community to resolve these crises”, according to Kent d’Orsay, who clarifies that this is the first visit of a French Foreign Minister to Guyana.

This decision “is also part of France’s diplomatic retooling”, in the context of which recent announcements were made about the opening of an “embassy in Samoa”, “consulates general in Mosul and Melbourne” and the “creation of 700 additional posts by 2027 for the French diplomacy”.

Guyana is at loggerheads with Venezuela over the disputed oil-rich province of Essequibo.