Following Venezuela’s continued refusal to accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Guyana has asked the Court to move forward with the case “at the earliest possible date.”
“Guyana has decided to ask the Court to proceed directly to the holding of oral hearings, at the earliest possible date, to determine its jurisdiction over the case…confident that the Court will agree that it has jurisdiction, and then proceed to decide on the merits of Guyana’s suit,” a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said.
The statement noted that although the ICJ fixed 18 April 2019 as the date for Venezuela to submit a Counter-Memorial on Jurisdiction, in response to Guyana’s Memorial filed on November 19,2018, Venezuela failed to make a submission on that date, and indicated in a letter from its Foreign Minister that it had chosen not do so.
