Trinidad and Tobago is expecting that Venezuela will do nothing to prevent Guyana from realizing the development of its natural resources for its people, T&T PM Dr Keith Rowley said last night, even as he joined Suriname President Desi Bouterse in calling for peace to reign in the region.
Rowley and Bouterse were approached on the sidelines of the opening of the 37th Caricom Heads of Government Conference last evening at the National Cultural Centre on what is the hottest issue for Guyana. Guyana has approached the United Nations seeking to have a juridical settlement of the border controversy and President David Granger has already expressed his desire to have Caricom’s support on this front.
Rowley told reporters that his island’s position on the controversy is a very simple one.
“We subscribe to the international arrangements that give Guyana its border security and Trinidad and Tobago continues to appeal to both parties to do nothing that will further destabilize the area,” he said. “Trinidad is expecting that Venezuela will do nothing to prevent Guyana from realizing the development of its natural resources for its people and those are our positions.”
Moments later, Bouterse indicated that the border controversy was one of the issues President Granger raised with him during a recent meeting. Granger visited Suriname on July 1 to hold discussions on continental, regional and bilateral issues relating to both countries.
“Of course we spoke about the border issue,” he said when asked
When pressed for a definite answer on Suriname’s position, he said it was twofold.
“One part is Guyana took a position to go [arbitration] and we think that that’s correct. What’s important we must stay in dialogue and we must keep this piece of the world as a zone of peace. The other part is that maritime situation where also Suriname is involved,” he said.
Noting that Venezuela needs to look back at the demarcations, he said, “It’s very complicated, because we are also in the squeeze with our friends from Venezuela.”
Later, when asked for an update on the issue, Granger said the situation now is that Guyana has written to the UN Secretary General asking him to select a course “which will take us to a juridical settlement.”
That letter was dispatched last year and the Secretary General subsequently sent several missions to both Guyana and Venezuela to discuss the way forward.
Granger said that at this point in time after waiting 50 years Guyana feels that the controversy can only be settled if it is taken to court. “Venezuela is quite clearly interested in delaying any settlement of the controversy. We have to get it settled because it is affecting our development very severely,” he said.
Granger said that Caricom has always supported Guyana in its territorial controversy with Venezuela and similarly it supported Belize in Guatemala’s claim to that country’s territory. “So there would be at least at the minimum an iteration of that support but this year we want to take it a step further by asking for the matter to be taken by the UN Secretary General into the ICJ. We need to get a juridical settlement so that we start next year confident that we would have that controversy resolved,” he said.
Asked specifically if individual countries have indicated their support for Guyana on the issue he said, “Caricom is a collective and we are confident in Caricom’s support.”
During this meeting, which ends tomorrow, Guyana will use the opportunity to continue its lobby for support.
Guyana’s border with Venezuela was settled by international arbitration in 1899 but Venezuela has claimed that this award is null and void. It wants a continuation of the UN Good Officer process, established by an agreement signed in Geneva in 1996, to settle the controversy.
In May last year Venezuela issued a maritime decree claiming most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. Since then Guyana has mounted an intense international campaign to rebuff Venezuela’s claims and to articulate the position that a juridical settlement is now necessary.
