What President Ali hasn’t explained is that the signing of his Joint Declaration for an Enhanced Defence Partnership has exactly zero guarantees.
We understand the language of diplomatic hypocrisy, but the President has an obligation to be honest and, at least, more detailed to the citizens he represents.
A true partnership implies a balance of power, mutual leverage, and reciprocal capabilities—none of which exist between the two signatories. Instead, it comes with the standard fluff; America doing what bedazzles a Guyana Defence Force that is woefully under-equipped, per general opinion.
“The agreement strengthens military cooperation, expands joint training with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), improves air-domain awareness, monitors narco-trafficking”… reads the narrative. And, while Guyana’s oil and financial explosion are not mentioned specifically, their economic impact is referenced through clauses like these.
The boiler- plate churn out is in anticipation of no Opposition queries, or other push back from civil society quarters that should have civic interest in this partnership mismatch…is the thinking.
“Guyana sits at the intersection of South America and the Caribbean and the US Southern Command considers Guyana a cornerstone of its “Southern Spear” strategy…` this partnership has escalated into a highly active strategic alliance…reads more data.
The irony is, this is far from reassuring.
We’ll cite the plight of Ukraine and its protracted quagmire for survival. It gave up the world’s third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, per the Budapest Memorandum, which provided security assurances in return.
Agreements are predicated upon honor by nations which elect leaders who come with honor. Trump is America’s anomaly in this regard and is now its historic shame.
He has introduced an unorthodoxy to diplomacy that comes not only with malevolence, but a brazen kind of kick- back coined as a ‘dollar diplomacy’– a pejorative, in our minds.
His special envoys portend a crime scene.
And we’ll go to Steve Witkoff/Jared Kushner duo, of no diplomatic experience but negotiating with Vladimir Putin with Russia’s Lukoil as a backdrop.
Research material sums up their dealings for Lukoil as them proposing a $20 billion buyout of that company’s international assets to break the geopolitical stalemate.
The plan relied on the U.S. government taking a minority stake through the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
This state-backed structure would require the U.S. Treasury to lift or bypass sanctions, offering Vladimir Putin an immediate economic lifeline—alongside potential access to frozen Central Bank assets—in exchange for a limited ceasefire and political concessions in Ukraine.
The middle Eastern players would, in turn, get parts of Lukoil and they, as a thank you, would invest in Kushner and Whitkoff’s businesses.
And the law suit filed against Whitkoff for his, seemingly, nefarious activities appears to have some substance.
And here’s how the Lukoil deal and the Agreement President Ali announced, with the casual fare of a social tea dance, are disturbingly similar.
In spite of what agreement may have already existed, this October 2026 Agreement highlights a deeper connection than just energy economics.
It represents the strategic merging of commercial oil assets with raw US military and diplomatic power. That these are in the hands of a megalomaniac who uses his war machines to cripple defense mechanisms of his perceived enemies–a la Ukraine– is a concern that checks the depth of decisions being made at Guyana’s Presidential level.
And this continues to spotlight the poor returns on their oil patrimony that Guyanese have to live with.
Of course, this reflects on Government officials and those elected to represent the nations citizens. We remain, firmly, of the opinion that the Government of Guyana has a Constitutionally mandated Opposition, as an elected arm of Government, for operational reasons.
With an agreement of this magnitude signed on behalf of the country, it would have certainly been informational for the Opposition to have explained what this means for the nation.
Had the Opposition—singly or collectively—broken down the text of the President’s agreement, they would have performed a vital service to those who depend on them when the ruling Party is being sketchy.
The Facebook communities would benefit from the salience that the Agreement contains symbolic technical cooperation, rather than binding security guarantees. And since they have become the primary platform for these discussions and resolutions, it would do those who govern a favor to ensure information that is closer to accurate than not, is shared– and promptly.
And the deferring to Parliament…
We revere in the order of Parliament and all that it represents for law and order. But democracy and vital information are not confined strictly to government buildings. Passive acceptance is not an option for an Opposition on a matter of this magnitude.
And the ‘Partnership’ mismatch needs to be broadcast clearly, fluently and repeatedly. Showing how a lack of leverage in defense mirrors a lack of leverage in economic sovereignty is what the people need to know.
Guyana is making the exact mistake in its military strategy that it made in its oil deals: negotiating from a position of weakness and giving away total control without getting binding guarantees in return.
The stakes here are high.
Based on a ‘DonRoe Doctrine ‘ – giving Trump the absolute right and locking out Western powers– Guyana has effectively made itself fodder for Trump’s resource kidnapping and a captive in a global resource war.
And here’s what can happen.
If China– which has significant collateral holds on Guyana backed by unpaid loans–gets angry at the Trump D’onroe Doctrine stranglehold on Guyana’s oil and decides to foreclose on its investments, what will happen to Guyana’s resources which, per the Constitution, belongs to the people?
These are questions/scenarios that the Opposition singly or collectively needs to dissect and analyze as due obligation to those who elected them expressly for this service.
And, to the Opposition which, more likely than not, will be the official dispenser of the ramifications of this Hegseth /Ali agreement that runs through Guyana’s million barrel per day production select your messenger.
Those of adverse sentiment will never be good ambassadors for your political cause.
Compromised, failed or untrusted messengers will always fail.
And, crucial public information from Government officials on this Defence Partnership is already overdue.
