David Rutley, the United Kingdom (UK) Minister for the Americas, Caribbean and Overseas Territories, is in Guyana this week for the meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders.
Though he has been meeting with regional leaders and pledging the UK’s support for various initiatives, be it climate resilience or solving the Haitian crisis, the UK representative says his country is keen on supporting Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He believes the UK support was very clear last December when Venezuela escalated its aggressions towards Guyana, even pursuing a referendum over Guyana’s Essequibo region. And that support, Rutley said, remains.
“We stood very clearly in support of Guyana’s sovereignty at that time.
“…We will continue to be here to support Guyana in these times,” Minister Rutley told the News Room during an interview at the sidelines of the regular meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in Georgetown.
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.
Last December, Rutley told the News Room that the UK is working to get more of its partners to similarly support Guyana and call out Venezuela’s “unacceptable” actions.
