UNITED NATIONS - Guyana has objected to a statement made by Venezuela at the ongoing 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), saying Caracas was engaged in making “falsehoods”.
Guyana’s Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett addressing the UNGAGuyana’s Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said she was exercising her right to response to a statement made by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Yvan Gil Pinto, last Friday where he made “falsehoods that were excessive even by their accustomed standards of untruthfulness in relation to my country.
“The intelligence of the international community should not be insulted by Venezuela’s allegations that Guyana is allowing its territory to be used as a platform for military aggression against any State including the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” the Guyana diplomat said.
She said that all this derives from Venezuela’s “grotesque claim to two thirds of Guyana” and that throughout Guyana “has acted, and continues to act in relation to neighboring Venezuela, in full accordance with international law and has consistently invited the Government of Venezuela to do the same.
“In particular, Guyana urges Venezuela to confirm its adherence to the judicial processes of the International Court of Justice in the matter of Venezuela’s basic contention regarding the border between our countries. Venezuela’s diatribes – not confined to Guyana alone – are refuted in full measure”.
She said Georgetown wanted to remind Caracas that the 1966 Geneva Agreement “is in fact the binding legal instrument that provides for the settlement of the controversy over the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award and the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela”.
Rodrigues-Birkett said the obligatory settlement procedure is set forth in Article IV of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which notes that when bilateral negotiations failed to achieve a settlement, Guyana and Venezuela agreed to refer the controversy to the United Nations Secretary General to choose the means of final settlement.
“The Secretary General chose, in the first instance, the use of his good offices to bring about a settlement satisfactory to both parties. The good offices process took place with the participation of Guyana and Venezuela over a period of more than 20 years, without success or any progress toward success.”
She said in January 2018, acting in accordance with Article IV of the Geneva Agreement, the Secretary General determined that the good offices process had failed, and he chose a new means of dispute settlement: litigation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Both countries have since filed documents before the ICJ and Rodrigues-Birkett said “accordingly, if Venezuela truly believes that the best, or the only, way to resolve the controversy is by adherence to the 1966 Geneva Agreement, then it should adhere to that Agreement and plead its case to the ICJ, and accept the decision of the Court, when it is issued, as a final and binding settlement of the controversy.
“Guyana will not agree to any procedure that contradicts the express provisions of the Geneva Agreement and bypasses the Court, which is the only means of settlement that is now authorized by Article IV of that Agreement,” she told the UNGA.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s President, Nicholas Maduro Morro says he is ready to meet with President Irfaan Ali and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders on the subject of the Guyana- Venezuela border controversy.
In a video posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday, Maduro said, “I reiterate to the President of Guyana Irfaan Ali, that there is only way to resolve the conflict over the territory of the Essequibo: to return to “face-to-face dialogue within the framework of the Geneva Agreement.
“I am ready to meet in a place of our choice together with delegates from CARICOM”. Maduro said, adding he wants the controversy to be resolved in a peaceful manner and that Venezuelans consider Guyanese as brothers and sisters.
“We will never represent a threat,” he added.
Earlier this month, Guyana announced that it had received bids for eight of the country’s oil blocks which are located offshore Guyana.
But in a statement, Caracas rejected the auction saying “the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, strongly rejects the illegal bidding round for oil blocks currently carried out by the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana (Blocks for tender for 2022 – Guyana Licensing Round), since it intends to have maritime areas pending delimitation between the two countries”.
Venezuela also noted that any arbitrary concession granted would be “unacceptable” and that “these actions do not generate any type of rights to third parties who participate in such a process”.
