| …as Guyana banks on Intl. support for its territorial integrity—Granger “As far as I am concerned this territory belongs to Guyana and any attempt by Venezuela to use armed force to prevent Guyana from exercising its sovereignty over its land or sea space or airspace is illegal.”Despite a subsiding of the tension between Guyana and Venezuela over the border controversy, there are no guarantees from the Nicolas Maduro administration to Guyana’s unhindered and continued pursuit of its development of the disputed Essequibo County.Guyana’s Head of State, President David Granger, said yesterday that while there were commitments made on the part of the Venezuelan leader on the matter of installing ambassadors between the two countries, Maduro gave no guarantees that there will be no further provocation or aggression, should Guyana continue to seek to pursue development possibilities in Essequibo ahead of any solutions to the border controversy.Any such solution is to be arrived at by the Special United Nation’s delegation tasked with investigating the situation.Granger yesterday met with the local media corps at the Ministry of the Presidency and provided an update on his maiden appearance at the largest gathering of world leaders.He spoke to the four broad agreements undertaken between the two countries following a meeting that was facilitated by UN Secretary General,Cheap Jerseys From China, Ban Ki-Moon.According to Granger,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, Maduro agreed to have the Guyana nominee, Cheryl Miles, assigned as the Ambassador to Caracas while the Venezuelan Ambassador to Guyana, Reina Diaz, would return to Guyana.Maduro,Cheap Jerseys, he said, agreed to receive the delegation nominated by the UN Secretary General.Granger said that when the team had visited Guyana,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, the Venezuelans had said that the timing was inconvenient.He said, too, that the Venezuelan troops that were deployed in the Cuyuni area in western Guyana have been withdrawn, “so we feel that those four matters were to Guyana’s advantage.”He said the agreements do bode well for the restoration of normalcy on the border.No GuaranteeThe President was adamant that the meeting with the Venezuelan leader can in no way be misconstrued as bilateral negotiations.On the matter of Guyana’s development of the Essequibo region in the interim, the President said it was not a case of Guyana being “allowed” to develop the Essequibo.“As far as I am concerned this territory belongs to Guyana, and any attempt by Venezuela to use armed force to prevent Guyana from exercising its sovereignty over its land or sea space or airspace is illegal.”He continued, “It is our territory; we are a sovereign nation and that is why I called on the international community to guarantee the rights of small states like ours.”Granger said that Guyana is not in possession of gunboats or corvettes that could be used to expel “persons who intrude into our territory.”On the matter of developing the Essequibo, the President said, “We would certainly like to proceed and this is the undertaking which we have given foreign investors; we are calling on the international community to preserve the security of our country, our territorial integrity.” Moral suasionThe President also used the opportunity to inform media operatives that the newest US Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, presented his Credentials, ahead of the press conference.“I called on the United States with whom we are partners in something called the Caribbean Security Basin Initiative (CBSI) which was established by President Barack Obama, to guarantee the security of small states…The majority of states in the Caribbean are small and they have to be protected.”According to President Granger, “We cannot establish 15 defense forces for 15 states in the Caribbean; there must be some international system for protecting small states.”Granger, in driving home the point to media operatives present at the Ministry of the Presidency said, “There is no guarantee,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, there is an undertaking from Mr Maduro, but what I asked is that the international community will give us that guarantee; we cannot do it ourselves.”He said Guyana has embraced the diplomatic course of action to prevent, forestall or inhibit Venezuela “from behaving in a lawless manner.”Granger did concede that because of the US’ foreign policy, that country is unlikely to become more deeply involved than it is at present.He did seek to point out however, “I do believe that the United States and Brazil on the North American Continent and the South American Continent respectively, have what I would like to define as moral suasion; they have influence and they can exert that influence.”According to Granger, “Whether they want to deploy that suasion to restrain Venezuela is another matter.”He said while the controversy with Venezuela over the border has persisted for 50 years, there has been no full scale invasion of Guyana and as such, such influence by the Americans have probably worked in preventing the controversy from degenerating into violence.CARICOM’s PriorityWhile some have questioned the level of solidarity for Guyana from regional blocs such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the President said he was not disappointed and does recognize that individual states will have their own priorities.President Granger said, “From the time of the independence of many of the smaller Caribbean Island States,Jerseys Wholesale, Venezuela has pursued an aggressive programme of establishing Embassies, Cultural Centers, extending loans and grants and more recently, under President Hugo Chavez Frias, the introduction of ALBA….also PetroCaribe.”He said while Guyana has been a beneficiary of PetroCaribe as is the case with numerous Caribbean states, “I don’t believe any of our Caribbean colleagues are in a trade-off between Guyana and PetroCaribe.”The President sought to drive home the point that Venezuela over the past 50 years has been working to build friendships but stressed, “We feel that the friendships must not be at the expense of Guyana’s territorial integrity.”Granger said that the Caribbean has always sided with Guyana with regards to its controversy with the Venezuelans. “They have not let us down and I don’t expect them to let us down.”Confronted with the assertion of a lack of individual support from CARICOM leaders in favour of Guyana and its call for a judicial settlement, President Granger said, “ There is no place for disappointment in international relations; you have to be realistic.”According to the President, “Every state has its own national interest and I expect that the Caribbean states will behave in a manner consistent with their national interest.”He said that CARICOM as a bloc has expressed its support for Guyana and while it may not have been as forceful as some would have expected, “we are satisfied that the Caribbean community wants to see the Caribbean remain a zone of peace and is on the side of Guyana and Belize in the resolution of these two disputes.” |
