Caricom foreign ministers have expressed satisfaction with the maturing relationship between Guyana and Venezuela, despite a traditional row currently in a United Nations-facilitated Good Officer process. This is according to the communiqué issued at the 14th Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) held in St Kitts and Nevis on May 4 and 5.
“Ministers noted with satisfaction the continued growth, maturity and deepening of relations between the Republic of Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and expressed the view that this positive and sustained friendly climate in the relationship between the two countries was conducive to the realisation of the mandate of the Good Officer process,” the statement said.
In the meantime, the foreign ministers reaffirmed their “unequivocal support” for the maintenance and safeguard of Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The statement comes days after the UN Good Officer, Professor Norman Girvan, met Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro. The meeting took place almost a year after the Jamaican academic visited Guyana, having met with this country’s foreign minister and other officials as well. The meeting with the Venezuelan authorities was to identify options and advance the negotiation process to address a territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela in the Essequibo territory.
The participants in the meeting agreed to hold regular meetings between the facilitators of both countries Roy Chaderton of Venezuela and Ralph Ramkarran of Guyana who will report progress made to each of their foreign ministries.
Professor Girvan was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban ki moon in April 2010 as his Personal Representative to support him (the Secretary General) in his role as Good Officer.
This post was vacant since the death of Oliver Jackman in January 2007, who served in that capacity from October 1999 to January 2007. This appointment was critical in the search for a practical settlement of the controversy that emerged from the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899, which definitively established the territorial boundary between Guyana and Venezuela, is null and void
