Guyana pursuing closer cooperation with US to protect EEZ, monitor drug flights

President Dr Irfaan Ali has reaffirmed Guyana’s position on aircraft transiting its airspace while involved in transnational criminal activities, while underscoring the country’s strong relationship with the United States (US).

Speaking with reporters on Monday, the Head of State said Guyana continues to engage the US on security cooperation, capacity-building and the development of systems to better monitor and protect its maritime space and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), noting that while such systems are costly, the Government is actively pursuing partnerships to strengthen its response capabilities.

“As you know, we are in a very strong partnership with the United States in the fight against transnational crime, and our engagement focuses heavily on an integrated approach to crime fighting, not only with the US, but with all countries in the region—to ensure that we have a common platform through which we can integrate our infrastructure, share intelligence and build a strong, resilient network to fight transnational crime, especially drug trafficking,” he said after the launch of the Revised Laws and Law Reports of Guyana, the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Monday.

When asked how the Government plans to tackle planes overflying Guyana with drugs, he responded, “Yes, that is one of the critical issues we have to deal with—the overflights over our airspace. That is something we are very serious about. We are working on it, and we are now building out a system [to deal with it].”

He further explained that discussions with the US have highlighted the substantial costs of undertaking such projects. “We are discussing with the US and other partners how we can build out an integrated system. These systems are not inexpensive—they’re very expensive—but we are exploring partnerships to build a system that can address these challenges, including the use of our exclusive economic zone and, of course, our airspace.”

Earlier this month, The Guyanese Government has reaffirmed the country’s sovereignty over its maritime jurisdiction, telling neighbouring Venezuela that it has no legal rights to the waters off of Guyana’s coast. This was after the Venezuelan Government had objected to a decision made by the Guyanese Government to advance a three-dimensional (3D) multi-client seismic exploration to gather data from a 25,000 square kilometre (km²) offshore area within Guyana’s EEZ.

In 2024, President Ali had stated that the Government had sought international assistance to address drug-laden planes flying over Guyana. His comments followed the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) seizure of 4.4 tonnes of cocaine from several pits in Matthews Ridge, North West District, Region One (Barima-Waini).

Ali has also previously declared Guyana’s support for the strong actions and direct approach being taken by the US to crack down on drug cartels and transnational crimes that have plagued the Western Hemisphere for decades. The Guyanese leader made these remarks during an interview with Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie on the side-lines of the Shield of the Americas Summit hosted by President Donald Trump in Miami, Florida, on Saturday.

Guyana’s head of State was among leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago who were invited by President Trump for the summit.