With just a matter of hours left before President David Granger addresses the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) the Head of State says his objective will be to call on the UN to offer some form of solid protection for small States.
“Guyana has been subjected, from the time of independence, to provocation and harassment from Venezuela and we are calling on the United Nations to create some form of collective security to protect small States,” Granger said, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency last night.
His comments come in the backdrop of a now months-long feud between his government and the Nicolas Maduro administration over a Venezuelan decree that sought to usurp Guyana’s Atlantic zone. Relations deteriorated to the extent that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon convened a meeting between the two leaders on Sunday on the sidelines of UNGA to ease tensions. Venezuela has since agreed to return its ambassador who it had recalled at the height of tensions and to accept Guyana’s ambassadorial nominee, a process that Caracas had put on hold.
In last night’s statement, the President expressed the need for collective security as he spoke to local journalists after a day of bilateral meetings, which saw him meeting with the Head of State of Chile, President Michelle Bachelet and Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, as well as the Secretary General of The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Ernesto Samper Pizano.
Granger said that it is impossible for all the small States that have come into being through the collapse of the old empires, to protect their own territories and deal with all the other forms of security on their own. “So what we are asking the United Nations to fulfil is its mandate to protect small States,” the President said.
Even after having met with the UN Secretary General, and Venezuela’s President, Maduro, Granger said his address to the General Assembly will not be any different.
“The developments were very small and tentative. I appreciate that we have moved forward, but Venezuela still maintains its territorial claim on Guyana, and Venezuela has used armed force against Guyana so I don’t regard the matter as settled,” Granger said. He added that regardless of what was discussed during that meeting, the UN still has a role to play. The President’s position is that the situation, which now faces Guyana, has been one enacted from time to time over the past fifty years. “We want a permanent solution, we want to live in peace,” President Granger reiterated.
