France prepares to open embassy in Guyana, mulls visa processing locally

Last Updated on Sunday, 23 March 2025, 13:44 by Writer

France is preparing to open its embassy in Guyana in September, aiming to boost diplomatic, business, and people-to-people relations between the two countries, as well as with the European Union (EU), according to France’s non-resident Ambassador to Guyana, Nicolas de Lacoste.

In addition to existing cooperation between the two countries in the areas of defence, law enforcement, culture, business and the granting of visas, Mr La Coste welcomed Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd’s interest in seeing the French Embassy here as a gateway to the EU. “Guyana wants to consider France as an entry door to the European Union. UK has left the EU. Now you will have a full-fledged European embassy and I think we would be very much so. We would be your entry door to the EU and the French embassy would provide all the information about France as well as the European Union,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

Before the United Kingdom (UK) broke away from the EU in 2020, Britain had been a key diplomatic interlocutor with Guyana on relations with that single market and political bloc.

In the area of culture, Mr de Lacoste noted that “we have a very active Alliance Française in Georgetown which has been completely relaunched.”

He, however, said the diplomatic mission might not immediately begin processing France-specific Schengen visas in Guyana so applications would still have to be sent to the French Embassy in Paramaribo for processing. “We might continue to process them in Paramaribo. It will depend on the numbers,” he said.

Mr de Lacoste said the French government would eventually decide who would be its Resident Ambassador to Guyana.

Currently, France’s diplomatic bureau in Guyana, which is headed by Chargé D’Affaires Jean Jacques Forté, is responsible for accepting applications which are then transported to the French Embassy in Suriname for processing. Mr Forte said the French Embassy could process about 50 to 55 visa applications monthly from Guyana.

The French Ambassador said a new private airport would be opened on Monday by Gum Air airline for flights from Suriname to Guyana and French Guiana. The Suriname-headquartered airline is expected to fly twice weekly on that route when regulatory approval is fully granted. “This will boost the tourism and the business-to-business activities and we are pretty sure that, with the enhancement of the connectivity between the three, the situation will get much better.”