– foreign ministers to update UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon
Professor Norman Girvan, the Good Officer in the Guyana/Venezuela border dispute, has met for the first time with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, almost a year after a visit to Guyana.
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon
According to Venezuelan media, the foreign minister “held the first official meeting, on Wednesday, May 5th, with the UN Good Officer 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 Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran, who will report on the progress made to their respective foreign ministries.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan and Guyanese foreign ministers are tasked with briefing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the negotiations. El Universal, a Venezuelan newspaper, quoted Maduro as saying that he was confident in Professor Girvan’s ability, and he “supported goodwill actions”. Just a year ago, the Jamaican academic visited Guyana for the first time since his appointment by the United Nations.
Professor Girvan was appointed by Ban in April 2010 as his personal representative to mediate the dispute.
An internationally- renowned Caribbean economist, academic and civil servant, Girvan is a research fellow at the Graduate Institute of International Relations, UWI, St Augustine campus, Trinidad and Tobago. In his role as Good Officer, Girvan will assist in the search for a practical settlement to the border dispute that emerged after Venezuela contended that the arbitral award of October 3, 1889 governing the matter is null and void, and laid claim to a significant amount of Guyana’s territory.
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