GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says Guyana has no plans to take offensive action against Venezuela. He was speaking amid complaints from the Bolivarian Republic over an incoming British offshore patrol vessel.
“… we don’t plan to take offensive action against Venezuela. Whatever we do here has been routine; it has been long planned and part of building a defensive capability in Guyana. (It is ) not to fight wars but to police better our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and (safeguard) our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the Vice President said during a People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) press conference on Thursday.
The BBC recently reported that the United Kingdom sent the HMS Trent, an offshore patrol vessel, to participate in joint exercises after Christmas.
“HMS Trent will visit regional ally and Commonwealth partner Guyana later this month as part of a series of engagements in the region during her Atlantic Patrol Task deployment,” said a Defense Ministry spokesperson
Jagdeo said such engagements were long in the making and not intended to harm or affect Venezuela.
He, however, stressed that Guyana is committed to the Argyle Declaration, a joint pronouncement issued by Guyana and Venezuela following a meeting of Presidents Dr Irfaan Ali and Nicolas Maduro recently in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Nothing that we do or have done is threatening Venezuela,” Jagdeo stressed, adding that Guyana has not turned away the vessel.
On Wednesday, Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said he spoke to Ali and Maduro about the vessel and told Venezuela, on behalf of Guyana, that the exercises planned are “not threatening exercises.”
He also spoke about the use of the vessel.
“This is a vessel that comes into the region. It comes here (in St. Vincent and the Grenadines) sometimes, too, dealing with helping to prevent drugs, dealing with trafficking in persons (and) search and rescue. It has minimal military capacity, as I understand it,” Gonsalves said during a radio program.
Jagdeo was responding to a move made by the Venezuelan president.
Earlier on Thursday, Maduro ordered more than five thousand military personnel to participate in a defensive exercise in response to Britain sending a warship to waters off the coast of Guyana.
Maduro said he was launching a joint action of a defensive nature in response to what he called the provocation and threat of the United Kingdom against peace and the sovereignty of the South American nation.
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