A HIGH-LEVEL Guyanese delegation led by Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge is in New York for border talks with officials from Venezuela.
Discussions on the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy commenced on Saturday, October 28 and are expected to continue to today, Sunday, October 29.
In a statement on Saturday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry explained that the two-day meeting was organised by Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Border Controversy between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Dag Halvor Nylander.

The meeting forms part of the fulfilment of his mandate under the Good Offices Process, with the strengthened aspect of mediation, to actively engage the two countries with a view to explore options for a solution to the border controversy.
In 2015, the Government of Guyana lobbied the then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take steps toward a resolution of the controversy using an option from the menu as stated in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.

According to Article IV of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, if the controversy is not resolved following the selection of one of the means of peaceful settlement, “the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall choose another of the means stipulated in Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations and so on until the controversy has been resolved, or until all the means of peaceful settlement there contemplated have been exhausted.”
The Foreign Affairs Ministry noted that in 2016, as a consequence of a stalemate on the matter, outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed with his successor, António Guterres, to continue to use the Good Offices Process until the end of 2017 as a means of arriving at a settlement.

According to the mandate of the Personal Representative, “If, by the end of 2017, the secretary-general concludes that no significant progress has been made toward arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly request that he refrain from doing so.”
It was noted that since the appointment of Nylander on 27 February, he has visited Guyana four times, holding talks with President David Granger and Foreign Minister Greenidge, among other Guyanese officials.

Additionally, in September, the Guyana delegation to the General Debate of 72nd Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly met with the secretary-general as well as Nylander. Informal discussions were also held with Venezuelan counterparts.
In his address to the UN General Assembly this year, President Granger said Venezuela is increasingly becoming “more militaristic.”
“Four UN Secretaries-General have been seized of the Venezuelan claims. The choice has become one between just and peaceful settlement, in accordance with international law, and a Venezuelan posture of attrition that is increasingly more blustering and militaristic.
“In this matter, protraction is the enemy of resolution, and the ally of sustained conflict,” he told the world leaders.

The present Good Offices Process has been conducted since 1990. Venezuela is contending that the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 demarcating the border between Guyana (British Guiana at the time) and Venezuela is null and void. Consequently, it continues to lay claim to two-thirds of Guyana’s territory.