Brazil’s Lula has a ‘great responsibility’ to guarantee region’s peace, stability – President Ali

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva is travelling to Guyana today (February 28) for talks with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders.

Talks should include how Brazil can support regional integration and development but Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali says President Lula also has a responsibility to help guarantee the region’s peace and stability.

“He has great responsibility in the region to provide leadership.

“…His role is (like) all others to ensure that peace and stability remains and to ensure that all parties engage within the confines of international law,” President Ali told reporters when asked about Lula’s role in Guyana/ Venezuela relations.

Lula is expected to host Presidents Ali and Maduro in Brazil soon for another round of talks following the initial meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines late last year in which Venezuela assured that it will not use force against Guyana.

Although Guyana has never done so, Guyana also agreed not to resort to the use of force.

The border between Guyana and Venezuela was settled by an arbitral tribunal on October 3, 1899, but on the eve of Guyana’s independence in 1966, Venezuela repudiated the award which it had upheld for more than 60 years.

Decades of talks failed to settle the controversy and the United Nations Secretary General, in keeping with an agreement in Geneva which Venezuela signed on to, referred the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In provisional measures granted last December, the Court ruled that Guyana has governed and exercised sovereignty over the 83,000 square miles determined as its territory in 1899, and that should not change unless the court determines otherwise in its ultimate ruling.

Outside of the Guyana/ Venezuela situation, President Ali told reporters that Brazil is a key part of regional development plans particularly in the areas of infrastructure development, energy security and climate change.