Your Eyewitness sees a striking historical irony unfolding in Ole Mudland!! For much of our post-independence history, we’ve struggled desperately to woo foreign investors – and now, the world’s last-standing great power has sent its Deputy Secretary of State to CONCRETISE, not merely encouraging American companies to invest – but to invest itself!! Imagine that!!
Oil might’ve given us geopolitical relevance, but bauxite and critical minerals are giving it strategic importance!! The language out of Washington is revealing. The State Department says Landau is gonna expand economic cooperation, particularly in energy and critical minerals. That combination is critical!! We got what the US increasingly wants: abundant energy, bauxite and other mineral resources, a politically stable investment environment, and a geographical position outside the major theatres of conflict that threaten global supply chains!!
And Washington ain’t just talking about Guyana’s resources – it’s putting the American Govt’s money behind them!! Only days before Landau’s visit, the US Department of WAR announced an US$85.5 million equity investment in Strategic Bauxite USA to secure refractory-grade bauxite supplies and expand the First Bauxite operation at Bonasika!! For centuries, American interest in Latin American resources was expressed through private corporations. Now, the American Government itself is becoming an economic participant in strategic-resource projects!!
Washington’s concern is access to and processing of our top-notch refractory-grade material required by strategically important industries. The US$85.5 million commitment – on top of the private sector’s US$65M – is therefore best understood as part of America’s broader attempt to reduce dependence upon China-controlled mineral supply chains. Up to now, we’ve been interpreting every American conversation through the prism of ExxonMobil and the Stabroek oil discoveries – but Washington’s interest is clearly much broader!!
Our oil production’s already transformed our geopolitical significance. The Yanks now appear interested in building a much wider economic relationship encompassing oil and gas, electricity, infrastructure, mining, logistics, and potentially new technologies!! They’re simultaneously deepening their economic engagement with T&T and have announced their billion-dollar investment to reopen their Pt Lisas Steel plant!!
We should also use Laundau’s visit to dissuade the Yanks from processing the RASC bauxite in the US – but as much as is practical, do that right here!! After all, we’ve got the energy to not only push Cerebrus Data Centers, but also alumina and ceramics plants, etc!!
If American strategic interest helps us establish modern bauxite processing, refining, and downstream industries; develop roads, ports, and electricity; transfer technology; train Guyanese engineers and technicians; and create competitive local enterprises – then the relationship can become transformational!!
So, while we’ve gotta understand from where the American breeze is blowing, this doesn’t mean everyone else gets “shocked out”!! We have gotta simultaneously maintain constructive relationships with Europe, India, Canada, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Gulf states!!
And where appropriate, China!!
…a fulcrum
Washington doesn’t have to mention China in every conversation for us to know the Chink factor’s unavoidable!! Critical minerals are of strategic importance, and the Yanks have openly expressed concerns about Chinese control of several minerals!! As such, we offer Washington a plum prize – a source of strategic raw materials located in a friendly country within the Western Hemisphere and increasingly connected to American capital!!
So, it would be foolish not to welcome American investment!! But our objective can’t be just to replace Chinese or other foreign purchasers of Guyanese commodities with American purchasers!! Our goal has gotta be value-added development to avoid exchanging one form of dependency for another!!
But why should the Yanks listen to us?? And the answer is we got bargaining power BEYOND oil and minerals!! We got strategic geographic positionality on the top of South America that makes us particularly valuable!!
Your Eyewitness has long called for a military base in Essequibo to which the yanks can have access!!
…free of Venezuela’s threat
Our relationship with the US has always been affected by Venezuela’s border dispute. But our emergence as a major energy and minerals producer – and military ally – changes the equation!!
Washington now gets a stake in our autonomy!!
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