…addresses ongoing border concerns
…updates high command on Brazil talks

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF of the Armed Forces, President David Granger on Monday convened a meeting with the Guyana Defence Force high command to among other things discuss ongoing defence concerns, the Ministry of the President said in a statement.

There have been some level of criminal activities at Guyana’s borders with both Venezuela and Brazil. According to the ministry in wake of the recent visit by a high-level delegation from neighbouring Brazil, led by Brazil’s Minister of Defence, Mr. Raul Jungmann Pinto, Minister of Justice, Mr. Torquato Lorena Jardim and General Sérgio Etchegoyen, Minister Head of Institutional Security/Presidency of the Republic, last Friday, President Granger on Monday convened a special meeting with the GDF top brass.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who was also present at the meeting, held at State House, explained that the purpose of this follow-up meeting was to review the discussions that emanated from the deliberations with the Brazilian delegation and to prepare the GDF to chart the way forward in terms of defence cooperation.

Last Friday during the talks with Brazil, Guyana stressed the need for greater emphasis on surveillance and her involvement in the Amazon Surveillance System. The two countries also reviewed a six-year-old communique on defence. The bilateral engagement, which was hosted at State House, saw a commitment by both countries to review the September, 2012 Joint Communiqué, which followed the official visit to Guyana by Ambassador Celso Amorim, then Minister of Defence of Brazil. The review is intended to update the agreements in that document and bring them in line with present-day realities, as well as to deepen defence cooperation.

During the meeting with the Brazilians President Granger said that the visit, which follows closely after his own State visit to Brazil in late December, was the initiation of the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Guyana and Brazil. He added that the signing of that 2012 communiqué saw the establishment of a bilateral defence working group. “We would like to review the Joint Communiqué to determine its applicability to present-day circumstances. That agreement contained seven points, which are being implemented, but in light of the present situation in the northern coast of South America, we would like to review that agreement…to put greater emphasis on surveillance and our involvement in the Amazon Surveillance System,” President Granger said.

To this end, Minister Jungmann informed delegates that Brazil is ready to revisit the terms and provisions of the communiqué to work out the modalities of how the two countries can cooperate in the areas of defence outlined by the President. “We are willing to review the communiqué. We will do this through our Military Attaché… who will then refer it to the higher authorities,” he said.

Speaking of defence cooperation, Minister Jungmann told the President that countries in the hemisphere have to work more closely together to tackle problems such as drug-trafficking and other transnational crimes, which threaten law and order and citizens’ safety. “As Minister of Defence, we have responsibility for the army, the marine and the air force, so whatever we can do to assist Guyana, let us know,” the minister told the President.

Meanwhile, also at the meeting was Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, who updated the visiting delegation on the recent developments of the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy, which he said is at the heart of Guyana’s national security. President Granger also took the opportunity to place on record, Guyana’s gratitude to Brazil for its support for Guyana in the border controversy with Venezuela. “Brazil, for 50 years, has been a guarantor of our territory and has maintained that it is not interested in any changes to settled boundaries,” he said.

Minister Jungmann said that Brazil has the third largest border in South America and the world at large and it has frontiers with 10 countries. He noted that Brazil wants to see the controversy with Venezuela resolved permanently and in a diplomatic manner, which can be achieved at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This, he said, is vital for the stability of the South American continent.