CONFIRMED: Granger to meet with Ban Ki Moon and Maduro tonight
President David Granger
President David Granger

A meeting between President David Granger, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the United Nations Secretary General looks set to go ahead at the United Nations Headquarters this evening.
“We’ll meet the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and we have an indication from him that Mr Maduro will be present,” President Granger told Guyanese media this morning.
President Granger has been insisted that he will not meet Maduro alone, and he put it even blunter Saturday that the time for “appeasement” is over.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon  
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

The only talking Mr Granger said he will have in the presence of Maduro is with the United Nations Secretary General, who has responsibility to ensure that the matter is settled.

“We’ve recommend a juridical (legal) course; and…I am going to ask Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to identify a course that can help Guyana to get out from under this could and start to attend to the development of those five regions that Venezuela has been claiming,” President Granger said in an interview at the office of Guyana’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations.

President Granger is adamant that over five decades of talks to find a solution to Venezuela’s claim is sufficient; there is now need to find a “permanent solution.” That solution, the President insists lies in a definite decision from the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hague.
That resort to the court is to settle Venezuela’s claim that the arbitral award of 1899 which defined the two countries’ border is null and void.
According to an agreement signed just before Guyana’s independence, Venezuela and the United Kingdom agreed to place the resolution of the matter directly with the UN Secretary General. Over the years, he has appointed a so-called Good Officer, to try and find a solution, but that has not worked. President Granger yesterday repeated earlier statements that the Good Officer process has now been “exhausted” and that the Secretary General needs to send the matter to the court for final settlement.
Mr Ban recently sent a team to Guyana and Georgetown’s position was laid out carefully. The team was sent to Guyana following a commitment the UN Secretary General gave at the July meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government.
Mr Ban has however not been able to send the same team to Caracas before the UN General Assembly this week, and so, that too could have an impact on whether a meeting will come off at all.
If the meeting between Granger, Maduro and the UN Secretary General does not happen, the President is likely to meet only with Mr Ban.
President Granger does not accept the position of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo that he should meet with Maduro without the presence of the Un Secretary General.
“Mr Jagdeo knows very well that this controversy has persisted for over 50 years and Venezuela has been told everything that it needs to be told by the Guyana government, so I don’t see that we should make any further appeasement; I don’t think we are behaving in any incoorect manner.
“Mr Jagdeo had his opportunity to resolve the conflict and we’re still in difficulty. I don’t know that his recommendation will contribute to a successful outcome for the Guyanese people.”
During a meeting with President of the Inter-American Development Bank Luis Alberto Moreno Friday, Mr Granger said the current aggression by Venezuela on the country’s western frontier has had negative impact on the economy, hindering development.
He made specific reference to the case two years ago when Venezuela seized a U.S.-chartered oil survey ship.
The Teknik Perdana was carrying out a seabed survey for Texas-based Anadarko when Venezuela’s navy boarded it in Guyanese waters and escorted it to Margarita island.
“In terms of the economic impact, it has scared away investors and we made the President of the bank of the impact aggression has had,” Mr Granger said.

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