… says Venezuelan Foreign Minister
VENEZUELA’S Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro Moros has stressed the strong friendship between Guyana and Venezuela and noted the high regard in which President Hugo Chavez holds his counterpart here, President Bharrat Jagdeo.
He was speaking after the end of yesterday’s Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
The opening session of the IV Regular Summit of the Heads of State and Government of UNASUR commences at 10:00hrs today.
“First of all, I would like to greet you in the name of President Hugo Chavez and of the Government of Venezuela “, Moros said, speaking through an interpreter.
Moros added that he was grateful for all the help and attention that he and his party received in Guyana.
“We would like to congratulate Guyana for the summit that has been organised. We have given our effort to help Guyana in whatever will be done for this year that you will be presiding over UNASUR,” he said.
“The relationship with the Government [of Guyana] is at its best moment in all the areas you can think about: in political cooperation, diplomatic cooperation and economic cooperation, energy cooperation,” he said, adding that the commercial part of it is growing.
He said that the level of communication is “permanent” through the Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and between the two Presidents.
“President Chavez has the best opinion of President Jagdeo and we consider Guyana as a brother nation,” he said. “So we are willing to keep the relationship at the best level you can think about,” he said.
Speaking on the road link between Guyana and Venezuela, he said that a team is working on this and will be here very soon, from the Venezuelan Ministry of Communications, to work on all the technical details of the road link.
He said further that Guyana and Venezuela are working on forging agreements on fertiliser and in terms of commerce that is to be developed. “So I think that the agenda is advancing very well in terms of integration between the Republic of Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” he said.
Speaking to local and foreign reporters at the media centre at Liliendaal, Prime Minister Sam Hinds said that the relationship between Guyana and its neighbour to the east is good. “In particular, I would like to refer to Petrocaribe, of which Guyana is a member,” he said. He spoke of rice that Guyana is selling to Venezuela under a trade agreement between the two nations.
“I know that there are some 50,000 Guyanese-born people in Porto Ordaz and some of those areas,” he said, speaking of the close ties that the two peoples share.
The Prime Minister said that he is happy that Guyana is assuming the Chair of UNASUR for this year. He said that it has always been the desire of this country to develop closer relations with its South American neighbours.
“Guyana was once a British colony but is now an independent country. Guyana needs to get to know its neighbours in South America. So for those reasons, we decided to become part of UNASUR and we are happy that Guyana is going to be leading UNSAUR  for a year so that it is always before all Guyanese people that we are here in  South America, and we want to deepen our relationships with other countries and people in South America, for our mutual development.”, he said.
He stressed the important benefits Guyana can expect in its participation in UNASUR, particularly in the areas of integration of energy resources and infrastructure between Guyana and Brazil.
“Under the auspices of integration, we are now in discussion with agencies in Brazil to look at the possibilities of hydro power development in Guyana. We are also interested in the development of the road from Boa Vista to Lethem to Berbice, maybe near New Amsterdam, and discussions on that are continuing at a very encouraging pace,” he said.
Meanwhile, the meeting of the foreign ministers of UNASUR was held yesterday at the Guyana International Conference Centre and lasted late into the evening.
The results were not available, since the Ministers had to rush to attend the ceremony of conferment of Guyana’s Order of Excellence on his Excellency Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, at the National Cultural Centre last evening.
Details of the outcome of their discussions on such matters as the state of ratification of the Constitutive Treaty, the distribution of chairmanship of the ministerial level councils, appointment of a secretary general for UNASUR and adoption of the draft presidential Declaration of Georgetown are likely to be disclosed during the fourth regular summit of the Council of Heads of State and Government of UNASUR to be held at the Conference Centre.