Odeen Ishmael now ambassador to Kuwait

Odeen Ishmael, CCH, has been appointed Guyana’s resident Ambassador to Kuwait, the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on Wednesday.

The newly-appointed ambassador is to take up his office in the Middle Eastern state shortly. He is the first Guyanese diplomat appointed to the post. Ishmael, a well-known Guyanese diplomat, has been serving as ambassador to Venezuela since November 2003. Prior to that, Ambassador Ishmael served in Washington from June 1993 to October 2003. Since 1993, Ishmael has been participating as a member of Guyana’s delegation at the UN General Assembly, and represented his country at the OAS General Assemblies and other specialised meetings of this body in various countries of the hemisphere. Since 1997, he has led Guyana’s delegation of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). Additionally, he participated in the Summit of Heads of States of the OIC in Tehran (1997) and Qatar (2000).

In a press statement released on Wednesday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry reported thus, “The government of Guyana has received the agreement of the government of Kuwait for His Excellency, Mohamed Ali Odeen Ishmael, CCH, to be appointed as resident ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Guyana to the State of Kuwait.”

The appointment is in keeping with a commitment to strengthen relations between Guyana and Kuwait following the respective state visits of President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah. The two states agreed that the government of Guyana would establish a diplomatic mission in Kuwait. Guyana and Kuwait established diplomatic relations on August 17, 1995. Back in July, Guyana and Kuwait sealed five bilateral agreements for firmer ties, during the visit by Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohamed Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah and his delegation.

The agreements included one for economic and technical cooperation, and another for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital. The other agreements catered for the establishment of a joint commission and air services’ collaboration.

Earlier in January, President Jagdeo went on a state visit to Kuwait and later announced that the Middle Eastern country had agreed to provide up to US$10 million for an infrastructure project in Guyana. Most of this, he said, would likely be used to develop 10,000 more house lots for low-income groups. Kuwaiti assistance, he told the media, would come through the Kuwait Fund, after Guyana submits a proposal based on a feasibility study.