-VP says; affirms face-to-face meeting can serve to de-escalate tensions
-No national interest will be compromised

WITH just mere hours away from the meeting between Presidents, Dr Irfaan Ali and Nicolas Maduro, questions are still being asked as to what it will be about. As such, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has sought to provide some light on this important topic.

President Ali has agreed to a proposed meeting with Venezuela’s President Maduro set to take place today in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, facilitated by the Prime Minister of St. Vincent Ralph Gonsalves and observed by Brazil, CARICOM, and a UN Under-Secretary-General.

During an interview posted on his Facebook page, on Wednesday evening, the Vice President, reiterated that the border controversy is squarely before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and this is not on the table for talks.

“Nothing will be done in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that will compromise the ICJ process and on the defence co-operation and the engagements we’ve had with our international partners,” the Vice President said while underscoring that Guyana has never been the aggressor and its collaborations with partners have solely been to prepare for any eventualities.

Moreover, highlighting President Ali’s second letter to Dr Gonsalves, the Vice President said that this was a key element in exposing Maduro’s lies that he is telling CARICOM Leaders.

He stated that all eyes are on the region as many think that the brewing tensions pose a threat to the peace and stability within the zone. While CARICOM has thrown its unequivocal support behind Guyana, Dr Jagdeo said the organisation still recognised the imbalance.

“CARICOM was very, very robust in its condemnation of the referendum and the subsequent actions of Maduro… Brazil and the others made it clear where they stood on the matter and so they expressed solidarity with Guyana. Nevertheless, we believe that we need to de-escalate tension and we can do so in a meeting with the two leaders…

“We believe that a face-to-face meeting can serve to de-escalate tensions and this is coming from strong allies of Guyana,” the Vice President said.
Guyana has never abandoned its good-neighborliness approach, but, the Vice President firmly maintained that removing the border-controversy case from the ICJ is not negotiable as Guyana has already pursued that path and believes that the 1899 arbitral ward is binding.

Stressing that President Ali has not been “shy” about reiterating the national stance, the Vice President said that the Guyanese Head-of-State has the full support of the government.
Dr Jagdeo also condemned those persons who are trying to score political points by inciting fear in the populace and distorting the meeting’s objectives.

“I want to ensure that everyone who is looking at this matter or paying attention to it and has some worry about what will happen in St. Vincent and the Grenadines of whether some national interest will be compromised. That will not happen,” the Vice President affirmed.

Furthermore, speaking on some of the actions that have led to this point, the Vice President took some time to address why he felt the Maduro-led Administration held their sham referendum on December 3, which sought to annex part of Guyana’s territory. Dr Jagdeo said he is of the opinion that it was a front to hide the Bolivarian Republic’s internal issues.

With that being said, despite all that is going on, this is nothing new and as such, Guyana will continue on its rapid development agenda, according to him.

“We’ve been there before. We’ve overcome those challenges… several times in the past and we will overcome this here too…” he said while stating that Guyana cannot find itself paralysed and his government will continue to do its job. That is, bettering the lives of all Guyanese through job creation, education, security, among other objectives.