Guyana-Venezuela border controversy…
Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Carl Greenidge
Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Carl Greenidge

Greenidge nixes return to Good Offices Process
–says Guyana ‘well prepared’ to move to ICJ

THE Guyana/Venezuela border controversy will come up for discussion when President David Granger meets with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General (SG), António Guterres, next week on the sidelines of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 72).

Just before demitting office in December, 2016, former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had decided that Guyana and Venezuela should return to the Good Offices Process for a period of one year, and if no significant progress was made, the matter would be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Norwegian diplomat, Dag Halvor Nylander, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Representative has been engaging both sides on the controversy.

President David Granger

During a press conference here on Wednesday ahead of the visit to the UN, Guyana’s Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge, disclosed that President Granger will address the General Assembly next Wednesday.

“The President’s statement will no doubt make reference to the process, and Guyana’s wish to ensure that the Secretary-General adheres to the commitment that he made to facilitate dialogue between the parties, and to ensure that by the end of 2017, if there was no resolution or significant progress to the resolution, the matter would be referred to the ICJ,” Minister Greenidge said.

Further to that, he said that the President and the Secretary-General are expected to meet on Monday, September 25, 2017, where it is anticipated that the progress made in relation to the work of the personal representative on the border controversy, and its likely outcome, would come up for discussion.

Asked whether Guyana would agree to an extension of the UN Good Offices Process, the Foreign Affairs Minister noted that Guyana never had any difficulty speaking to Venezuela regarding its willingness to resolve the controversy, but there is no room for a permanent stay on the situation.

“As you would recall, the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in October 2015 set a process in train; and in setting that process in train, he called for a last effort at dialogue,” Minister Greenidge said.

“And the last effort was supposed to take one year; we are approaching two years since that request was made, and that effort was launched. I don’t think that there is any reason to expect that it could be requested to extend this time,” he told journalists at the press conference.

As to the consequences of the controversy, Minister Greenidge said Venezuela’s behaviour to date is intended to undermine Guyana’s economic development and social and political stability.

UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres

“In the Secretary-General’s communication to the two countries, a process… and the process has timelines. And not withstanding our concerns about some of the ideas of the SG, we embrace the process on the understanding that it will be implemented by good faith by all the parties, including the United Nations,” he said.

Speaking on the country’s preparedness to advance its cause at the level of the ICJ, Minister Greenidge noted that it is well prepared.
“We have been doing work domestically, and putting together teams that can undertake that work. So, as regard the preparedness, we are as well prepared as we can be at this point in time, given the resources that we have,” he posited.

The Foreign Affairs Minister reminded journalists here that the UN’s involvement in bringing an end to the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy has nothing to do with the modifications of borders.

“The controversy which the UN was called upon in 1966 to agree to participate in is a process that says in event that these two States are unable to peacefully resolve this controversy, the UN will choose from a menu of options. And the controversy itself is an allegation that the 1899 Arbitrary Award is null and void, and that is the exercise, and at the end of that exercise, one will arrive at the conclusion that the treaty was either null or void, or continues to be valid,” Minister Greenidge explained.

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1 thought on “Guyana-Venezuela border controversy…”

  1. This dispute must end soon so that development can proceed for both parties to create wealth and build a prosperous peaceful future for the region.

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