Efforts are underway to arrange a meeting between the technical teams from Guyana and Venezuela, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said in a letter.
That meeting of the technical teams is expected in Brasilia ahead of a second meeting between Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
“…I am profoundly encouraged by the letter dated January 2, 2024 from the President of Guyana to the President of Venezuela in respect of arranging the first meeting of “The Joint Commission” in Brasilia to advance further “the Argyle Declaration” and its purposes,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said in a letter to both Presidents on Thursday.
The Joint Commission, as agreed to previously, comprises Foreign Ministers and technical persons from both states.
Days before, President Ali told the News Room that the technical teams must meet to hammer out the framework for his next meeting with President Maduro.
Presidents Ali and Maduro met in December in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Following their meeting, there was an 11-point declaration which includes a commitment from both sides to “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict.”
Both leaders also agreed to meet again in three months in Brazil.
Why the meetings?
Venezuela held a December 3 referendum that many feared would be used to greenlight a potential seizure of two-thirds of Guyana’s territory- the entire Essequibo region- that the Spanish-speaking nation has claimed for decades.
Subsequently, President Maduro issued a redrawn Venezuelan map that includes Guyana’s territory, told investors to leave and planned activities in the Essequibo region.
Guyana has maintained that the territory is its own after an 1899 Arbitral Award determined the boundary between the two countries as is internationally-recognised. Because of Venezuelan aggressions and decades of failed talks, Guyana eventually took the border controversy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where the case is ongoing. Guyana hopes for a final, binding judgement that affirms that the Essequibo is its own.
So a meeting was brokered amid rising tensions fuelled by Venezuela’s attempts to undermine Guyana’s sovereignty.
This meeting planned to be held in Brasilia must be carefully crafted/arranged to accommodate the legitimate wishes of the Government of Guyana and not provide a platform for Maduro to commandeer the agenda and introduce matters related to the issue now before the ICJ.
This meeting will keep the bilateral lines of communication open and reduce the tension between the countries.
Guyana has to make certain conditionalities as a basis for the meeting that are:
1.Venezuela must not encroach on interfering in matters that are clearly within the ambit of the internal/domestic affairs of the sovereign state of Guyana and its rights enshrined in the UN/OAS Charters;
2. Venezuela must undo all its decisions in respect of its virtual illegal annexation of The Essequibo and the consequent establishment of certain administrative measures including its threat to certain companies that are clearly and legally operating in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Guyana;
3. Guyana has the sovereign right to pursue internal security arrangements/alliances/ right to strengthen its self defense capabilities (Article 51 of the UN Charter) without sabre-rattling coming from Venezuela including defensive military exercises conducted with its allies and partners since the Argyle Declaration never precluded Guyana from so doing.
4. Venezuela must give an undertaking to respect the 1 December ICJ Judgment as a means of the preservation of the legal status quo and the Zone of Peace Concept.
5.Guyana will not be hustled into participating in the next Brasilia meeting as it was in respect of its participation in St Vincent meeting without a clear indication that its interest will be met and not those of the interlocutors.
6. The agreed Provisional agenda when agreed by the respective Foreign Ministers must be strictly adhered to without any compromises on the status of the ICJ that is seized of the territorial controversy.
7. PM Gonzales as interlocutor-in- Chief must issue a formal letter to the Government of Venezuela stating that a wreath in 2022 bearing a map of Venezuela that included The Essequibo was used without his prior knowledge/approval and does not represent the position of the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy as a precondition to his continuing in his role as an independent interlocutor.
8. The Brasilia meeting must decide/clarify whether the visits of the British Under Secretary of State, Mr David Rutley and that of the HMS Trent to Guyana warranted the level of response from Foreign Minister Yvan Gil of Venezuela and the amassing of the ultra-high Venezuelan military and maritime forces on the Eastern Caribbean Coast respectively. This can be added to the agenda item: List of events occurring post -Argyle and their connexion to the Declaration.
Guyana must be convinced that the participation of its President Ali in the Second Brasilia meeting will be beneficial to Guyana’s interests and not because it wants to please Gonzales and Lula the latter of whom opted out of the St Vincent meeting at the last minute.