– nor sacrifice national patrimony for ephemeral gains, declares Foreign Minister in address to Parliament 
GUYANA is certain that the RV TeknikPerdana which was arrested by the Venezuelan Navy was well within its local maritime boundaries because this country has used the internationally legal method of equidistance to declare its provisional maritime boundaries since 1977.

This was asserted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett while delivering an update to the National Assembly, yesterday, on the arrest of the boat under arms by the Venezuelan Navy and its escort to a port in Venezuela on October 10 last.
Minister Rodrigues said that if Venezuela were to follow the same internationally recognised principles its provisional boundary line would be definitely west of Guyana’s line.
Minister Rodrigues described the illegal claim by Venezuela to Guyana’s territory both offshore and onshore as an “ongoing burden” placed on Guyanese to seek solutions to the problems which this spurious claim has created for Guyana as a small developing country.
She said that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and under customary international law, States are permitted to delineate their maritime boundaries.
In keeping with this law too, if the entitlement overlaps with another State then the two States have to agree or enter into dispute settlement.
As such, the establishment of a process for the maritime delimitation of the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela had been one of the successful outcomes of the meeting between representatives of the two countries in Trinidad on October 17 last.
She stressed that this incident has nothing to do with the claim to the Essequibo because for Guyana the land border with Venezuela was settled by the 1899 Arbitral Award which was agreed by Venezuela and Great Britain as “full perfect and final.”

“…Guyana will not, I repeat will not, compromise its principles nor sacrifice any of its national patrimony for ephemeral gains displayed on the altar of cooperation.”

The issue has arisen, she said, because the maritime boundary has not yet been settled.
The Foreign Minister noted that the relations between Guyana and Venezuela ever since Independence in 1966 have been be-devilled by intermittent threats , acts of intimidation, seizure and attempted seizure of territory and various forms of economic aggression all committed by Venezuela.
All of this was done by the Venezuelans in a vain attempt to break Guyana’s will and to force concessions in relation to its illegal claim to the Essequibo, she contended.
However, over the past decade, particularly after His Excellency Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela, there had been a marked improvement in Venezuela’s attitude towards Guyana.
The Government of Guyana had then seized the opportunity to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation with Venezuela, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said.
She noted that the various agreements signed between the two countries during this period as well as the developments that proceeded in the Essequibo without the customary negative reaction from Venezuela provide clear evidence of the success of such a strategy and its positive impact on Guyana’s programmes for development.
Additionally, when his Excellency President Nicolas Maduro Moros paid his State visit to Guyana on August 31, 2013, his public remarks confirmed that the ties between the two countries were firm and that the boundary disagreements should be seen for what they were – ‘legacies of the past to be dealt with in a mature and responsible manner’.
She asked: “Are the various agreements signed and related programmes to be deemed worthless now? Do we in the light of the October 10 incident return to those ‘darkest days’ of which I spoke earlier or to those days of development uncertainties? I should hope not.”
Minister Rodgrigues-Birkett said that in keeping with a desire to promote a regime of peace, security and beneficial cooperation with Venezuela, the Government of Guyana has opted to pursue a course of reasoned dialogue as the preferred course of action to safeguard Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“But Guyana will not, I repeat will not, compromise its principles nor sacrifice any of its national patrimony for ephemeral gains displayed on the altar of cooperation,” she declared.

(By Clifford Stanley)