While much of the attention was focused earlier this year on American partners Trinidad and Guyana in the build up to US military action and engagements against Venezuela, the US says that oil and gas-rich Suriname is also being viewed as a strategic geographic ally.
This much was communicated to a Surinamese cabinet team, high ranking local officers, and journalists during an offshore day trip to the US aircraft flag carrier the USS Nimitz as it was anchored off the Surinamese coast on Thursday, May 21.
Commissioned in 1975 and named after Admiral Chester W. Nimitz for his stellar World War Two leadership role in the Pacific, the vessel is nearing retirement and is on one of its last voyages in the hemisphere, officials said.
Three cabinet ministers and senior military officials were flown offshore to the vessel on Thursday and officials from both sides used the opportunity to reiterate the need for a close diplomatic, economic and military partnership going forward.
“You are a very important regional partner and this is a strategically very important moment,” Rear Admiral Cassidy Norman said. “We are interested in continuing to build a partnership with you based on mutual respect, sovereignty, and our shared interests in the region as cabinet ministers Uraiqit Ramsaran, Harish Monorath, and Patrick Brunings listened. “We focus on cooperation between our countries and security, specifically to ensure stability, predictability, and prosperity in this region,” leading newspaper De Ware Tijd quoted him as saying.
The Dutch-speaking Caribbean community nation of around 650,000 is preparing in earnest to commence actual offshore oil production in 2028 following its first commercial discovery back in 2020. Officials say its geopolitical importance is expected to spike as is the case with Guyana where more than 100 US companies are operating, many of them supporting the Exxon-led production effort that produces 900,000 barrels of oil daily.
Most of Suriname’s oil fields are projecting northeast from the coast right on the border with neighboring Guyana, which first found offshore deposits back in 2015 and commenced production at the end of 2019.
The admiral suggested that Surinamese officers should in the future be part of exchange programs on voyages on US aircraft carriers and in other areas, as “we would very much like to have an officer from Suriname join us.” He said officers from Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico and Guyana are on board the ship and are fully integrated, benefiting from training and other types of exposure.
