Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett on Monday told the National Assembly during her budget debate presentation that she is expected to meet with her Venezuelan counterpart within the next two months to discuss the controversial issue of maritime boundaries.
According to the Minister, she was supposed to meet with Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Elías Jaua; however, due to events arising in that country, the meeting was pushed back. Nevertheless, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett noted that her Venezuelan counterpart has indicated that they are working to arrange a meeting within the next two months during which the technical team from both countries will discuss maritime boundaries issues.
Exclusive Economic Zone
The meeting was prompted by an incident last year where a research vessel RC Teknik Perdana was intercepted by the Venezuela Navy, which claimed that it was in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
However, Guyana has maintained that the vessel was in its own EEZ since it was conducting a multi-beam survey of its seafloor.
Continuing her budget presentation, the Foreign Affairs Minister went on to say that the Guyana-Venezuela relationship has remained strong in other areas, including the PetroCaribe arrangement under which Guyana continues to purchase oil from the neighbouring country. However, she noted that efforts are being undertaken to explore other markets to acquire oil.
She added that the countries have enjoyed many benefits from trade. “Venezuela has remained a very good trade partner and we want to preserve that relationship even as we look at other countries to sell our rice and purchase fuel, because our needs are expanding in terms of the fuel we need. With the development in Guyana and even as we explore for oil, we have to look at other parties for us to purchase oil from as well,” she said.
The Minister highlighted the excellent relationship shared with other neighbouring countries such as Brazil and Suriname. With regard to Brazil, she stressed that the bilateral relationship is being strengthened through several cooperation programmes, with emphasis being placed more recently on major infrastructural projects. As it relates to Suriname, the Foreign Affairs Minister pointed out that since Guyana and Suriname are the only Caricom countries to share contiguous borders, it further strengthens the relationship between them. She noted that both Caricom countries are also members of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and associate members of MERCOSUR.
“It makes sense, therefore, for Guyana to develop the kinds of relations with the Republic of Suriname to not only ensure that the opportunities of such memberships are exploited, but also to create a good link between those mechanisms and the other states of the Caribbean Community. We will use the geostrategic relationship with the Republic of Suriname to foster and nurture deeper relations with the abovementioned mechanism,” she noted.
Meanwhile, in rebuttal to the Minister’s presentation, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Parliamentarian and Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Africo Selman, said this year’s budget allocations of Gy$3.5 billion to the Foreign Affairs Ministry is inadequate to properly sustain the Ministry’s work of protecting Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. She noted that the implementation of a country’s foreign policy is primarily based on its obligation to foster and protect its national interests.
“Guyana’s foreign policy objectives are grounded in safeguarding the country’s political sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she stated. Selman pointed out that the country seems to be lacking in protecting its sovereignty as she referred to the research vessel incident, adding that progress on that front was unsatisfactory, referencing the hosting of meetings between the two countries, since the incident in October last.
