Dr Brent Hardt has been appointed U.S. ambassador to Guyana
The newly-appointed United States Ambassador to Guyana, Dr Brent Hardt, is expected here next month, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. embassy, Thomas Pierce, has confirmed. The U. S. embassy here has been functioning without an ambassador since former ambassador John Jones retired in September 2009.
Pierce declined to comment on the specifics of Dr Hardt’s arrival here, except to say he would be in Guyana in September. Hardt, a career diplomat, currently serves as chargé d’affaires ad interim at the U.S. embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Hardt previously served as deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Nassau, Bahamas, and at the U.S. Vatican embassy. Prior to that, he served as team leader for NATO policy in the Office of European Political and Security Affairs in the Department of State, and as Political-Economic Section Chief at the U.S. embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
Dr Hardt joined the United States Foreign Service in 1988, and served as a consular officer in Barbados, political officer at the U.S. embassy in Berlin, Germany during German unification, and as political-military officer at the U.S. embassy for The Hague; there he also served as an exchange diplomat in the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Acting UK High Commissioner Simon Bond
Dr Hardt earned a BA in History from Yale University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Meanwhile, both the Canadian and British top diplomats are returning home. Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Francois Montour, was due to leave Guyana on August 6.
Montour was accredited by President Bharrat Jagdeo on September 23, 2009. At the time, Montour told reporters that, apart from trade and economic cooperation, he would have been looking closely at Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy. Montour said then that Guyana and Canada have enjoyed a history of friendly economic cooperation, adding that in the future this cooperation would be addressed in the context of the free trade agreement between Caricom and Canada.
Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Francois Montour
Acting British Commissioner Simon Bond will be leaving Guyana in September. Bond assumed his role in June 2010 when the Honourable Fraser Wheeler demitted office. During an interview with this newspaper earlier this year, Bond had urged political parties to ensure that their campaigns appeal to the interests of the ordinary people. He explained then that the UK Mission here has an interest in Guyana’s upcoming elections, but as the electoral “mood” develops, focus should not be placed just on the “physical” aspects of the election, such as “getting the electoral list up to date, ballot boxes and what the results are”, but the focus should be on whether or not the electoral campaigns are relevant to the ordinary people with whom the ultimate decision lies. “Is it talking to issues that are important to ordinary people? Do people have a chance to see alternatives to debate on issues of concern? I think (that) in any country, party politics plays an inevitably big role in elections, but we hope that a policy focus can come through strong during this campaign, and that there isn’t too much emphasis on party differences and blaming the other side,” he said.
