Guyana, Venezuela agree to meet again

Following an over-the-weekend meeting between officials representing Guyana and those representing Venezuela in examining the border controversy between the two neighbouring nations, a mutual position has emerged that, in the near future, another meeting between the sides would be convened as part of ongoing talks to resolve the border controversy between the two neighbouring South American states.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge met with his Venezuelan counterpart on October 28 and 29 to discuss the controversy. Their meeting was held at the United Nations (UN) Head Office in New York. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that Mr Dag Nylander, Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, had facilitated those discussions, organised within the framework of the Good Officer’s mandate entrusted to the Secretary-General under the Geneva Agreement of 1966.
The Foreign Ministers and their delegations exchanged views on issues related to the controversy with the aim of exploring options for a full agreement for its solution, the release noted.
“They also reaffirmed their commitment to the Good Offices process, and reiterated that their Governments will remain actively engaged with the Personal Representative. The parties (have) agreed to meet again, to continue discussions within this framework and to explore options for the resolution of the border controversy,” the missive from the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
Relations between Guyana and Venezuela have worsened ever since oil giant ExxonMobil announced in 2015 that it had found oil in Guyana. Venezuela has staunchly been against oil exploration in Guyana’s Stabroek Block, where multiple oil deposits were found by ExxonMobil. In fact, the Venezuelan National Assembly had, in March 2017, approved an agreement to reject the oil exploration activities.
Venezuela, with almost 40 times the population of Guyana and a territory that is several times bigger, claimed, in 1968, the entire territorial sea of Guyana by means of the Leoni Decree, which has never been withdrawn.
In 2015, the Government of Guyana had requested then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take steps aimed at resolving this controversy. In 2016, as a consequence of a stalemate on the matter, the outgoing Ban Ki-moon agreed with his successor, António Guterres, to continue using the Good Offices Process until the end of 2017 as a means of arriving at a settlement.
It is with this intention that Guterres appointed Nylander as an envoy to resolve the border dispute. The mandate of the Personal Representative is that, “If, by the end of 2017, the Secretary-General concludes that no significant progress has been made toward arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly request that he refrain from doing so.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela, once an economic powerhouse in the region because of its oil revenues, has been dealing with issues such as a spiralling economy and civil unrest. And despite the border controversy, there have been several instances when Guyana has either been called on to render Venezuela assistance, or has offered such assistance.
Back in May of this year, Venezuelan Ambassador to Guyana, Her Excellency Reina Diaz, had called on Guyana to support her government’s efforts to end the unrest ongoing in Venezuela. While there have been varying reports, most have put the death toll from those unrests at over 100.
Ambassador Reina Diaz noted that at the international level, Guyana can support the actions taken by the Venezuelan Government to resolve the situation in that country; and in this regard, Venezuela has already seen support from the region, including from CARICOM governments and CILAC.
However, Guyana’s assistance did not stop there, as Government announced in September that it would be providing medical assistance to Venezuelan nationals following an outbreak of measles in that Spanish-speaking country.