Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge yesterday assured that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is still actively considering the way forward to resolve the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy.
“Don’t be concerned that it is dormant. Activity is still taking place,” Greenidge said at a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday.
Guyana had called for a juridical settlement but Venezuela is not in favour of this. Several UN missions have visited Guyana and Venezuela to listen to the two sides and decisions are expected to be made in the coming months.
Greenidge said yesterday that Guyana understands that it is a process and government is awaiting the UN Secretary-General’s decision.
“The matter is still with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We are awaiting on the SG to go through with, or put into effect, those ideas that arose out of the exchanges that started in September of last year and which both parties were called upon to embrace. I don’t really want to say more about that except it is our understanding that the parties have not indicated any difficulties with the principle and the process overall that the SG had proposed,” Greenidge said.
“Any one of the parties doesn’t honour obligations which have been forged with the SG, the SG will ensure that the other party is not disadvantaged. We have left that with the SG. We correspond with him from time to ensure that we are still alive and the issue is still alive and the other day with the shooting that took place on the Cuyuni, to just draw to his attention that for as long as the current situation continues, it poses a threat to peace and stability in the region,” he added.
Relations between Georgetown and Caracas have deteriorated over the last year since embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued a decree laying claim to most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. The Venezuelan decree had followed closely on the heels of an announcement by US Company ExxonMobil of a significant oil find in Guyana’s waters off the Demerara coast. The Venezuelan decree laid claim to this area.
This sparked a vigorous campaign led by President David Granger to internationalise the issue and up the pressure on Caracas to withdraw the decree. Caracas later withdrew the decree and issued a new one which Guyana still found objectionable.
Subsequently, last September, Granger and Maduro met the UN Secretary-General and agreed to a number of steps.
‘Stance on OAS and Venezuela’
Meanwhile, Greenidge was mum on Guyana’s position as it relates to the proposal by Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Luis Almagro to suspend Venezuela from the regional body. Almagro has argued that Maduro’s government had violated basic democratic principles, which had altered the constitutional order of the country.
Yesterday, Greenidge said that dialogue is the way to go for now.
“Our position is very much along the lines that had both been embraced by the ACS (Association of Caribbean States) and the OAS General Assembly a few weeks back. That is, our preference is that the parties be called upon to engage in dialogue and the government should respect the call by the rest of the region to have dialogue as a means of resolving the challenges and difficulties that face them today. I don’t want to pronounce on desirability of a particular outcome. That is for the meeting to decide,” Greenidge said.
Asked what would be Guyana’s stance be if it comes down to a vote, the Foreign Affairs Minister responded: “No. I don’t want to say anything at this stage.”
‘Guyana, Russia and Venezuela relations’
Speaking on his recent visit to the Russian Federation, Greenidge said while some persons may question Georgetown’s engagement with Moscow given that nation’s closeness to Venezuela, it must be made clear that Guyana also has had decades of good bilateral relations with Russia.
“With the signing of the basic agreement with the Russian Federation, as a small country we need to be on good terms with as…many of the international community as possible. In order to do that, sometimes a formal framework is required. We have had since independence, a good relationship with Russia as we have with many of the western countries or all of them. The understanding that has driven Guyana’s policy is that it is desirable to exist in a world where you have a plurality of ideological interests,” he said.
“Where you also have a variety of countries that are, if you like, close to the lines of legality… some more muscular than others, it is our view, and I think it will be a view of all the parties, that you cannot stop or terminate your relationship with country ‘A’ because country ‘A’ has close relations with Venezuela, on grounds that Venezuela has claims that are outrageous as regards your territory. We have not or will not be terminating or moderating our relations with any member state simply because they are talking with Venezuela because they will do it and you will find yourself, perhaps, speaking to yourself…we would not expect them to stop dealing with us because Venezuela has a problem with us. It is part of the reality of realpolitik,” Greenidge asserted.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said that Guy-ana’s concern in the case of Russia and Venezuela is for Russia to understand this country’s position as a member of the UN Security Council, which is meant to guarantee peace and security in the world.
“That they have an obligation to look at what is taking place here with regards to the controversy of Guyana’s borders and stand by the rule of the international rule of law, that is what we ask the Russians to do. Nothing more, nothing less,” Greenidge declared.
