GEORGETOWN, Guyana, April 18CMC—The Guyana government says it will not discuss any matter brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the ongoing border dispute with Venezuela.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it wanted to “reject” a statement made by the “Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China that Guyana and Venezuela “can solve the border issue through friendly consultations and negotiations.”
Earlier this week, the Chargé d’Affaires at the Chinese Embassy, Huang Rui, told reporters that while Beijing does not intervene in other nation’s internal affairs and respects all nations’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, he believes that Guyana and Venezuela should engage in “friendly consultations and negotiations” to settle the decade’s old-border issue between the two South American neighbors.
“If you follow the Chinese foreign policies, all those policies, as long as possible, you will see, first of all, we never intervene in the internal affairs of any nation. The second principle is that we always respect [other countries] sovereignty and territoriality, that’s all,” Rui added.
But in its statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it wanted to remind “the People’s Republic of China of the position made pellucidly clear on several occasions by the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana that the matter is pending before the International Court of Justice by decision of the United Nations Secretary-General, by the parties’ 1966 Geneva Agreement on settlement of the controversy”.
It also said that the Argyle Declaration, signed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines following talks between President Irfaan Ali and Nicolas Maduro on December 14, 2023, recognizes “Guyana’s assertion that it is committed to the process and procedures of the International Court of Justice for the resolution of the border controversy….”
“To that end, and in order not to undermine the jurisdiction or authority of the Court as the appropriate forum for the resolution of this controversy, Guyana will not discuss any matter brought before the Court,” the ministry said.
It also said that it had taken note “that there has been no comment from the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the blatant announcement by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that it intends to conduct elections on May 25, 2025, for a governor and legislative council of “Guayana Esequiba State,” which is the name Venezuela has given to Guyana’s Essequibo region. This is a clear violation of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The principles of international law and mutual respect will continue to guide the actions of the Government of Guyana in its interactions with all member states of the international community,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in the statement.
Meanwhile, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, speaking at his weekly news conference on Thursday, said, “We believe that the matter will be settled definitively at the ICJ and for the Chargé (d’Affaires) to now say we have to go back to bilateral discussion is improper and out of place because it’s not respectful of our national policy,”
Jagdeo told reporters there has been no shift in Guyana’s position that there is One China rather than two, including Taiwan’s breakaway province.
“The One China policy is the policy of the government of Guyana. It’s the policy of most of the world, including that of the United States of America, and I don’t see that changing now,” he said.
Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud, writing on his Facebook page, said, “China needs to be principled in its position on respecting Guyana’s territorial integrity and not appease Maduro’s serial violation of international laws.”
Venezuela claims the entire Essequibo region and a portion of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) offshore, where more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) have been discovered in the prolific Stabroek Block.
In 2023, Caracas claimed that more than half of eligible Venezuelan voters had taken part in a referendum that yielded overwhelming support for claiming the Essequibo.
National Electoral Council president Elvis Amoroso said more than 10.4 million out of 20.7 million eligible voters had cast their ballots.
The referendum came after the ICJ warned Caracas against “annexation” of the Essequibo. This oil-rich region makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens.
Chinese state-owned oil company China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), with a 25 percent working interest, is one of the partners operating in the oil-rich Stabroek Block.
The two countries are before the ICJ concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 … which is pending before it.
The case, filed by Guyana in March 2018, seeks the court’s decision on the validity of the Arbitration Award that finally determined the land boundary between the two countries. The court has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the controversy and will decide on the case’s merits.
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