Chandrikapersad Santokhi, who served as President of Suriname from 2020 until 2025, died in March 2026 at the age of 67. His funeral, held in early April, drew tributes from across the Caribbean Community. Among those who spoke was Guyanese President Dr Irfaan Ali, who reflected on their working relationship and returned, as he often has, to the question of the Corentyne River.

The river runs for more than 700 kilometres, forming a significant stretch of the border between Guyana and Suriname. It has been a source of periodic friction between the two countries for decades, contested over questions of sovereignty, navigation rights, and economic access. Ali quoted Santokhi's view of it directly: the former Surinamese leader had described the river not as a dividing line but as something connecting the two nations. It was a characteristically conciliatory position from a man who spent much of his presidency working to normalise and deepen relations with Georgetown.

The timing of Ali's remarks deserves attention. Guyana has recently raised objections to fees imposed by Surinamese authorities for use of the Corentyne, with Guyanese officials describing the charges as unreasonable. The dispute is not yet acute, but it signals that the river remains a live political issue despite years of diplomatic engagement. In that context, a funeral eulogy becomes something more than a personal tribute. Ali was making a point about what kind of relationship he wants, and what he expects from Paramaribo under its new leadership.

Suriname is now led by President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, who took office in 2025. Her administration inherits both the goodwill that Santokhi worked to build with Guyana and the unresolved tensions that have periodically complicated it. The fee dispute over the Corentyne is one such tension. How Geerlings-Simons chooses to handle it will say a great deal about whether Santokhi's approach to bilateral relations continues under her government or quietly recedes.

There are strong practical reasons for both countries to pursue cooperation. Guyana has undergone a rapid economic transformation since the development of its offshore oil fields, and Suriname is expected to follow a similar trajectory in the coming years as its own offshore discoveries move toward production. The two countries share not only a river but an emerging status as small nations managing sudden and significant resource wealth. The case for coordination on infrastructure, energy, and trade is not merely rhetorical. It reflects genuine overlapping interests.

Yet shared interest does not automatically produce cooperation. The history of the Corentyne illustrates as much. The river has been a point of contention over fishing rights, over the use of its banks, and now over transit fees. These are not abstract geopolitical disagreements but practical disputes that affect the livelihoods of people living on both sides. Resolving them requires more than goodwill; it requires functioning agreements with clear terms and mechanisms for enforcement.

Santokhi understood this. His vision of the river as a connector rather than a boundary was not naive. It was a political position, arrived at by a leader who had spent years working in security and law enforcement before entering politics. He was not given to sentiment for its own sake. When he spoke of the Corentyne as a shared resource rather than a disputed border, he was making an argument about how both countries could better serve their populations by resolving rather than prolonging the argument.

Ali's decision to centre that vision at Santokhi's funeral was a signal to Paramaribo. Whether it is received as such remains to be seen. The current dispute over river access fees is small enough to resolve without much difficulty, but small disputes have a habit of hardening if they are left unaddressed. Both governments would do well to settle the matter quickly and establish a clearer framework for managing the waterway going forward. That would be the most fitting way to honour what Santokhi spent five years trying to build.