Guyana’s position on border controversy ‘non-negotiable’ – Pres. Ali says ahead of meeting with Maduro
President Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday reiterated that Guyana’s position on the border controversy with Venezuela remains “non-negotiable”, highlighting that the merit of the case will be determined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The Head of State made the disclosure in a live broadcast on his Facebook page in which he noted that Thursday’s meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, President Nicolas Maduro is just a “conversation,” in the interest of keeping the region a zone of peace.
“In that meeting, we will have a conversation with President Maduro. I have made it very clear that on the issue of the border controversy Guyana’s position is non-negotiable,” the Head of State said.
According to President Ali, his decision to participate in the meeting was made following a series of consultations with stakeholders, Guyana’s technical team, agents, lawyers and the Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton.
“From the inception, we made it very clear that on the issue of our border controversy, there is absolutely no compromise. This matter is before the ICJ and that is where it shall be settled. There are no negotiations on this. There is no compromise on this,” President Ali noted.
President Ali was on Friday urged to explore the possibility of a meeting with President Maduro during an emergency meeting of the Heads of Government of CARICOM.
And on Saturday, President Ali was approached by St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves on meeting with President Maduro.
The meeting will be held at 10:00 hrs in St Vincent and the Grenadines. It will be hosted by Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Heads of State of CARICOM, a United Nations Under-Secretary General and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
“We expect that good sense will prevail and the commitment peace, stability, the threat of destruction will cease.
“In the interest of regionalism, in the interest of peace and stability, good neighbourly relations, the co-existence of two countries sharing a border, Guyana is always up for any action that will enhance relationship,” President Ali said on Sunday.
As he acknowledged the continuous support from regional and international partners during the process, the Head of State assured Guyanese that development in the country will continue “unimpeded.”
Collaboration and cooperation, as well as joint operations will “continue as planned”, President Ali said.
“We do so with every hope of maintaining peaceful environment in which every country in this region can co-exist in accordance with international laws and principles, in respect of each other without the threat of force or use of force,” he noted.
There have been numerous calls for the region to remain a zone of peace, and for Venezuela to meaningfully participate in the case before the ICJ.
The border controversy is squarely before the World Court and Guyana hopes for a final, binding settlement that reaffirms the 1899 Arbitral Award that established the existing boundary between itself and Venezuela.
Many countries view Venezuela’s recent actions, including a sham referendum and redrawing its map to include Guyana’s Essequibo region, as a threat to the peace and stability of the region.
I am very very very confused 🤔 reading this..
President Ali has made it clear there’s no compromise with Venezuela..
so why the meeting with Maduro?
is it just to say it to his face 🤔
Why is the focus of the preservation of good neighbourly relations always on Guyana that is on the defensive in response to Venezuela’s history of offensive manoeuvres against the territorial integrity of Guyana? Why is Guyana told to preserve the Zone of Peace when Venezuela is the chief and only instigator for a military response? Why are the actors not calling on Venezuela to adhere to the UN Charter and lumping Guyana with Venezuela as potential violators of the Zone of Peace?
I am in total agreement with the position maintained by President Ali ahead of the 14 December St Vincent Meeting that the question of determining the legitimacy of the 1899 Award and border issues is squarely and irretrievably located at and under the exclusive jurisdiction of the ICJ after 50 years of fruitless and non-productive bilateral negotiations as well as the good offices role performed by the UNSG who in disgust referred the two issues for a legally -based resolution at the ICJ in the Hague in March 2018.
This is a highly legal and technical land and boundary issue linked to a judicial determination of the validity of the 1899 Award that can only be adjudicated on in an international law setting.
Guyana’s position that the current boundary is legally binding on and opposable to Venezuela was upheld by the ICJ and validated as being plausible in its 1 December Judgment.
Guyana cannot retreat from this position of advantage, validation and endorsement by the ICJ because Venezuela has no legal foundation or leg on which to stand on before the ICJ. It is playing all kinds of delaying, prolonging gamesmanship and brinkmanship to get Guyana to abandon the ICJ so that it can turn the vice on Guyana.
This ‘Talks” meeting is badly handled by ambivalent PM Ralph Gonzales who ought to have gone firstly to Caracas that is the only source of the escalation of the tension and sabre rattling to get Maduro to reverse his many claims and administrative decisions over the Essequibo and restore the status quo as the ICJ ordered directly to Venezuela.
The climate in which Venezuela has appropriated three quarters of the landed territory of Guyana against the ruling of the ICJ directed at Venezuela and has this hegemonic “annexation” sword of Damocles over the people and Government of Guyana is not conducive or propitious for any St Vincent meeting until and unless those illegal imperialist and land grabbing measures are completely nullified and withdrawn given their provisional status.
This is a minimum sine qua non for any bilateral talks on any subject and PM Gonzales and President Lula ought to have known that before arranging this St Vincent tete a tete.
Guyana cannot be in St Vincent on Thursday under duress and influenced by to abandon its principled position that the boundary is now non-negotiable and completely under the legal process of the ICJ just to facilitate a” talk shop” in St Vincent organsied by “mediators” who do not know nor understand the intricacies and complexities of the issues but are pandering to Venezuela big country syndrome.
Guyana has to face this hegemonic Venezuelan challenge frontally and dispassionately to achieve a permanent solution to remove this albatross that President Romulo Betancourt in1962 hung around the necks of all the diverse peoples of Guyana.
It is now being exploited by Maduro both for national electoral mobilization, annexation of the Essequibo via a sham Referendum and to damage the foreign investment climate of Guyana as well as retard the entitlement of its people to a better standard of living.
Talks cannot take place in an hostile atmosphere where one side having had virtually two thirds of its territory annexed and the “organisers” do not see that as being a necessary pre-condition out of respect for Guyana’s status as a sovereign independent state struggling to avert an existential threat to its very existence.