US and Guyana Sign Defense Pact; Hegseth Weighs Counter-Drug Request
Hegseth and Guyana’s President Ali signed a Guyana defense partnership for training, exercises and air surveillance as Guyana seeks counter-drug help.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2026 — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali signed a joint declaration at the Pentagon that sets up an enhanced Guyana defense partnership with the United States. The Department of War readout called it a “landmark joint declaration” that “will increase security across the Caribbean.”
What the declaration says
Guyana’s Department of Public Information said the U.S. Department of War “resolves to provide sustained defense expertise, multidomain training, and combined exercises with the Guyana Defence Force.” It said cooperation will also strengthen Guyana’s air-domain awareness, its “ability to monitor, deter, and respond to threats in and around its territory.”
The Guyanese statement tied the declaration to “the continued defense of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and to both countries’ founding roles in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition and the Shield of the Americas.
According to the readout, Ali discussed ways to improve interoperability between the two militaries and to make both countries’ defense industrial bases more resilient.
Hegseth on counter-narcotics operations
In remarks before the signing, published in a Pentagon News report, Hegseth credited Ali with regional leadership. “Countries look to you. You’ve taken the lead,” he said. He said the United States will step up combined training in multidomain operations and air interdiction.
Hegseth also addressed a request from Guyana. “We’ve reviewed your request for U.S. military support in combined kinetic and lethal counter-narcotics operations. We take those requests very seriously,” he said, according to the department’s transcript of the meeting. Neither government announced a decision on that request.
Pentagon News reported that Hegseth also called a planned critical-minerals memorandum of understanding between the two countries crucial to collective security and a shared defense industrial base.
Ali described the moment in his own words. “This is the era of action. This is the era of leadership,” he said, adding that the region must be free “from narco-trafficking, free from international actors that are bad for a region, free from terrorism.”
Analysis: what it means
The declaration turns an existing relationship into a written commitment for training, exercises and air surveillance with a country that borders Venezuela. The open question is Hegseth’s mention of Guyana’s request for “kinetic and lethal” counter-narcotics support. Any U.S. combat role there would be a significant step, and neither side has said one is planned. Watch for the first combined exercises under the declaration, any announcement on the request, and the critical-minerals agreement.
Sources
- U.S. Department of War: Readout of Secretary Hegseth’s Meeting With President Mohamed Irfaan Ali (Oct. 21, 2026)
- Pentagon News: Hegseth, President of Guyana Establish Enhanced Military Partnership
- Guyana Department of Public Information: President Ali and Secretary Hegseth sign joint declaration
- Department of War transcript (via Public): Secretary Hegseth Greets President Ali
