Guyana will serve its two-year term on the United Nations (UN) Security Council starting January 1, 2024 and the United Kingdom (UK) believes it will have another “like-minded” partner to work with.
“It would be good to be working with a like-minded partner and strong friend,” British Minister for the Americas, Caribbean and Overseas Territories David Rutley said on Monday.
Guyana’s border controversy with Venezuela is one matter that the UK has already discussed at the Council level, Rutley said.
He explained that the UK thought it necessary to support Guyana’s territorial integrity while also highlighting “how unacceptable and unjustified” Venezuela’s aggressions and claims are. For the UK, Rutley said, the border between the two countries was settled via the 1899 Arbitral Award.
The border controversy was discussed during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on December 8. Based on reports, the Council agreed that international law and countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected.
Beyond the border controversy, the UK looks forward to collaborating on other global issues.
“We welcome having a further friend around that very important table,” Minister Rutley said during an engagement with reporters at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Georgetown on Monday.
The Security Council comprises 15 members including the following five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The 10 remaining members are temporary members elected for two-year terms. Algeria, Guyana, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia were five temporary members elected for the 2024-2025 period.
The Argyle Declaration without the requisite adequate supporting infrastructure and human capacity present in Caricom and CELAC seems to have assumed a most challenging role and function in the post-Argyle period in treating with any upsurge in the hostilities. It seems to me that the Argyle Agreement has bitten off more than it can chew. It would appear to replace the ICJ, the OAS, the UN and the UNSC as dispute settlement and mediation role in the event of an outbreak of fresh hostilities.
This controversy is now before the ICJ and the UNSC as the executing arm of he ICJ. There are so many layers of dispute settlement, mitigation and avoidance mechanisms that I believe The Argyle Declaration may have gone beyond what is reasonable, possible and beyond its limited human capacity and infrastructure.
How it will reconcile these conflicting and concurrent jurisdictions/ interventions and roles with those of the bodies mentioned above remains to be seen.
For one the British Minister, MP David Rutley seems amenable to co-operating with Guyana on deliberations of this matter at the Security Council where it is now, but the SC seems out of bounds for transacting this matter much to the pleasure of Maduro. This regional dispute settlement, reduction and mitigation mechanism in its relationship with established and more fully equipped International Organisations to which both states are members leaves me in a quite a conundrum.