-Joint Commission to be set up, any controversies to be resolved under international law
Guyana and Venezuela yesterday agreed not to use force against each other in any circumstance, a key development for Georgetown in the light of months of tension over Caracas’ staging of a referendum on Essequibo and its subsequent decision to annexe the county which makes up five-eights of this country.
Meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines, President Irfaan Ali and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro held a series of talks before final approval of an 11-point joint declaration which said that they both “Agreed that Guyana and Venezuela, directly or indirectly, will not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances, including those consequential to any existing controversies between the two States”.
Hammered out in the presence of high-level interlocutors including host, Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves; Celso Amorim, special envoy of the Brazilian President and Dominican Prime Minster Roosevelt Skerrit, the two leaders also agreed that any controversies between the two states would be settled in accordance with international law including the Geneva Agreement of February 17, 1966.