On 24 March, the 54th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Co-operative Republic of Guyana would be observed. Two months earlier on 29 January, the interim government of Bangladesh announced its intention to open a new diplomatic mission in the Latin American state. Initially, the mission is planned to be small-scale, with a First Secretary or a Counsellor serving as the Charge d’Affaires and an office in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. Located more than 15,000 km apart in two different parts of the world, Bangladesh and Guyana have shared diplomatic relations for 54 years, yet their political, economic, and cultural interactions have so far been very limited. So, why is Bangladesh now interested in expanding its ties with the Caribbean state?

Guyana, a former British plantation colony, obtained independence in 1966. Its land area amounts to 214,969 km2, and it contains approximately 950,000 people, being one of the least densely populated states of the world. Indo-Guyanese people constitute 39.8% of Guyana’s population, while Afro-Guyanese people, people of mixed origin, and indigenous peoples constitute 29.2%, 19.9%, and 10.5% of the population, respectively. The state was comparatively impoverished before the mid-2010s, with its economy being primarily based on the cultivation of sugarcane, bauxite and gold mining, and forestry. However, after the discovery of oil in 2015–2016, the state now possesses one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with its GDP growth rate being 19.3% in 2025 and its GDP per capita being $32,326 – above many European states.

Since 2017, the primary driver of economic growth in Guyana has been oil, and the country now has an oil reserve of 11 billion barrels – the 17th largest in the world. The petro-state is investing parts........

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