President Dr Irfaan Ali, recently, met with a delegation from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), an Indian aerospace company founded in the 1940s.
The meeting was a follow-up to the President’s visit to India earlier this year.
HAL’s delegation included General Managers Mr Ajay Shrivastava and Mr Puneet Kumar; Captain (Ret’d), Yogesh Jagannath and Chief Test Pilot, Mr Jitendra Choudhary.
The delegation was accompanied by India’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr KJ Srinivasa and First Secretary of the Indian High Commission in Guyana, Mr Mukesh Kaushik.
The Head of State was joined by the Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd; Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill; Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Brigadier Omar Khan; Director of Presidential Affairs, Mrs Marcia Nadir-Sharma; National Security Advisor, Captain Gerry Gouveia and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CJIA, Mr Ramesh Ghir.
Back in February, it had been announced that Guyana was in talks with the Government of India to procure patrolling vessels and a Dornier aircraft to better protect Guyana’s maritime boundaries.
This contract, President Ali revealed on Saturday last, should be signed by this year-end.
The idea of Guyana acquiring aircraft from India was first raised back in January 2023 when Ali visited the Asian nation, where he toured Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company – Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), in Kanpur and inspected their CG-767 Indian Coast Guard 18-seater Dornier aircraft. The Guyanese leader was also given a presentation on the company’s capacity and capabilities.
According to reports coming out of that visit, President Ali indicated interest in purchasing two of the India-manufactured Dornier 228 aircraft for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), which has an aged fleet.
Dubbed as Guyana’s first major defence deal with India, this move to procure defence assets from the Asian Government comes on the heels of the Irfaan Ali-led Administration taking significant steps to modernise the GDF with the acquisition of new equipment and supplies as well as capacity building.
India and Guyana have already established strong defence cooperation, with several GDF members undergoing various levels of training with the Indian military.
