Guyana, Venezuela ponder ‘next steps’ on border issue

Representatives of Venezuela and Guyana held a meeting last Tuesday in New York that was organised by Jamaican scholar Norman Girvan, the United Nations good officer on the border controversy between the two countries.

According to a communiqué issued by the UN, officials of the two countries attended a technical workshop headed by Girvan. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s personal representative in the territorial dispute said that the workshop focused on multi-dimensional approaches and best practices in the resolution of controversies around the world.

“The participants displayed a tremendously positive and constructive spirit, and everyone agreed that we are all better equipped with relevant information,” Girvan added. He noted that the parties are currently exploring the “next steps” to be taken. However, he did not say whether there are further meetings scheduled.

Girvan also said that the workshop “took place in the context of extremely friendly and cordial relations, where the participants reiterated Guyana’s and Venezuela’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the controversy”.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan new agency El Universal has reported that the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), which is reviewing Guyana’s application to extend its continental shelf, did not dismiss Venezuela’s communication objecting to its neighbour’s submission.

A document that summarises the progress made in the last session of the CLCS said that the commission acknowledged the communication forwarded by Venezuela, as well as Guyana’s response on the issue. The CLCS added that the submission will be examined by a sub-commission to be established “at a future session”. “Unless the commission decides otherwise, the commission shall function by way of sub-commissions composed of seven members, appointed in a balanced manner taking into account the specific elements of each submission by a coastal state,” reads Article Five of Annex II to the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The CLCS president, Mexico’s Galo Carrera Hurtado, will not be part of the sub-commission because he advised the Guyanese submission.

Adolfo Salgueiro, an international law expert, said that the fact that the Venezuelan objection has been acknowledged means that Venezuelan diplomacy managed to make the commission reconsider the case.