ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada - Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries under the auspices Argyle Agreement are moving to hold a meeting between Guyana and Venezuela this week following the latest border dispute between them.
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, speaking to reporters in Grenada (CMC photo)Last weekend, Guyana alerted CARICOM and the international community to the presence of a Venezuelan naval vessel that was near its oil assets for about four hours.
Since then, the United States, France, CARICO), the Commonwealth as well as the Organization of American States (OAS) have all called on Venezuela to not engage in further provocation by threatening ExxonMobil’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
But Venezuela has dismissed comments made by Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, saying it “categorically repudiates the baseless remarks” of the country’s leader, whom it said “lies brazenly when he claims that units of the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela are violating the maritime territory of Guyana”.
Caracas said that Ali is “hiding the fact that those waters do not for, part of Guyanese territory , since it is a maritime zone pending delimitation in accordance with international law”.
Skerrit, who had been attending the convention of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the weekend, told reporters that CARICOM is committed to keeping both sides talking.
“We are in discussions with both sides and we are seeking to have a meeting sometime this week with both sides to continue ensuring that the articles within the Argyle declaration continue to be observed and so we can continue to have the region as a zone of peace,” Skerrit said.
He said he believes that both sides will be open to dialogue, saying “it is discussions we have to have. These things we always believe that we can only resolve matters in the world through diplomacy.
“Same thing happening with Russia and the Ukraine war…engaging, diplomacy and we must not give up on the good old dialogue and discussions and using our good offices in CARICOM to ensure that the Caribbean remains a zone of peace,” Skerrit added.
St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Philli J Pierre, who was also here attending the NDC convention, said Castries believes that the region should be regarded as a zone of peace.
“The region must be a zone of peace. We can’t afford any conflict and CARICOM will continue to ensure that the region remains a zone of peace,” he added.
Guyana and Venezuela are before the International Court f Justice (ICJ) concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899. The ICJ has warned Caracas against the “annexation” of Essequibo, an oil-rich region that makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens.
The case, which was filed by Guyana in March 2018, seeks the court’s decision on the validity of the Arbitral Award which finally determined the land boundary between the two countries. The court has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the controversy and will decide the issue on the merits of the case.
In January, the Guyana government expressed “grave concern” over what it claimed to have been “recent actions and statements” by Caracas that constitute ”clear violations” of the Argyle Agreement and the binding order of the ICJ, both of which came into effect in December 2023.
Georgetown recalled that the Argyle Agreement, signed in St Vincent and the Grenadines in December 2023 in the presence of regional and international interlocutors, unequivocally commits Guyana and Venezuela to refrain from escalating any conflict or disagreement arising from the territorial controversy between the two States.
It said that this includes refraining from actions that could aggravate tensions or alter the current situation in the disputed territory, pending resolution in accordance with international law.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told reporters that there is an existing protocol in place for ongoing dialogue.
“We have a permanent Argyle accord in place and that allows Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) to act as interlocutor between Georgetown and Caracas. This obviously is an ongoing issue. T is not resolved yet and we expect that from time to time there might be disagreements or different perspectives and we expect that CARICOM and particularly the mechanisms set up by the Argyle convention to be triggered by either or both sides.”
Mitchell, an attorney, said he believes that both sides will trigger the mechanisms “to continue dialogue on the issue”.
