Warning of chaos and the disruption of integration if established borders are violated, President David Granger on Friday in his address to South American Presidents at the 48th Mercosur Summit said that the continent must be a “zone of peace” for it to progress.
“Violations of borders could degenerate into conflict and could derail integration. When borders which had been determined definitively settled by international agreements are disregarded by one state, other states may do the same. Chaos will ensue,” Granger said in a clear reference to the ongoing controversy reignited by Venezuela’s renewed claims to Guyana’s territory.
Granger headed a delegation from Guyana to the two-day trade summit, which ended last Friday in Brasilia, Brazil.
The Granger administration has made it clear that it will use every available opportunity to put forward Guyana’s case with the hopes of wooing more international support against the recent actions of President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuela government.
In his address, Granger stressed that he and his government wished to make it clear that “a full, perfect and final settlement was made in 1899-116 years ago by an international tribunal” before going on to substantiate this position. He said that back then “borders were demarcated, boundaries were delimited, maps were drawn; markers were set in stone” and moreover the whole world recognises Guyana’s borders.
Consequently, he said, Guyana has been obstructed in the development of its territory. He spoke specifically of the October, 2013 incident in which the Venezuela navy forcibly expelled an unarmed exploration vessel from Guyana’s waters. This action, he said, has resulted in investors being intimidated and the economy paralysed.
Granger described the recent decrees issued by Venezuela and in 1968 claiming a large portion of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone as a “fishbone” in the throats of Guyanese people. “We are undeserving of 50 years of unrelenting provocation and obstruction of our development. Guyana is a small state of fewer than a million persons. We seek cordial relations with all states,” he said before adding that the country stands committed to the mutual respect for states’ territory, mutual non- aggression between states, mutual non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and mutual cooperation for peaceful co-existence amongst states.
While stressing that Guyana subscribes fully to the ideals of democracy and constitutional order, he said that the government understands their importance to security and stability in South America. He added that the government embraces the principle of regional solidarity and the need to reduce political and economic asymmetries within the region. “It is, therefore, in the interest of closer integration and in the spirit of solidarity that we appeal to Mercosur to continue its vigilance to safeguard the sovereignty and security of small states on this continent and to eliminate inequalities and controversies that separate them,” he stressed.
He said too that Guyana reasserts its respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states and while noting support already forthcoming from the Commonwealth and Caricom he called on Mercosur to recommit its support to territorial integrity.
“We recall the commitment of Mercosur to the promotion of democratic norms and institutions. We recall, also, the stance taken regarding breaches of constitutional order within its membership,” he also said, while noting the recognition that Mercosur has accorded to smaller states through mechanisms such as the Structural Convergence Fund.
Granger also emphasised that Guyana will continue to contribute to the economic development of the peoples of the South American continent, while pointing out that if the country’s strategic geographic advantage as a gateway is diminished, “our contributions will be degraded.”
He also stressed that Guyana’s strategic geographic location has the potential to allow easier and cheaper access to the larger markets of the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean. He described Guyana as “a natural gateway to these larger markets” and added that the country is an asset to Mercosur as it will foster the development not only of the country but the continent. He spoke of the improvement of trade between the Caribbean and the continent through air, land and sea communication. International trade, he said is indispensable to economic integration and to Mercosur.
According to Granger, Guyana believes in integration. “We are committed to the infrastructural integration of the continent,” he said before adding that the Guyana government at the moment is negotiating for a road access between Guyana and Brazil through a bridge link which has already been built. The construction of a highway, he said, will intensify trade and investments with Brazil and the other countries of the South. The feasibility of a bridge between Guyana and Suriname to the East, is also being explored he informed.
Granger noted that the conference was taking place at a “propitious time in the evolution of the global economy. From the North came the conquistadores and explorers 500 years ago, creating a new Atlantic mercantilist economic system; from the West arose a new dynamic, dollarised market-driven economic system; from the East, most recently, came an aggressive industrialist powerhouse of the ‘Asian Tigers’ and we are the South. This is our time! This must be our century! We will succeed, as the other regions have succeeded, however only if we are integrated, only if we are united,” he further declared.
