KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC -Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves Wednesday said he remains “very, very hopeful” that the talks between Venezuela and Guyana would continue in an excellent spirit even as the United Kingdom announced it was sending a Royal Navy patrol ship, HMS Trent, to Guyana in a show of British support for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country that is involved in a border dispute with Venezuela.
Gonsalves, speaking on the state-owned NBC Radio, said the HMS Trent is no stranger to the region and that “it comes here sometimes to deal with helping to interdict drugs, deal with trafficking in persons, search and rescue. It has very limited, as I understand, its minimal military capacity”.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said, “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.”
The offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent was due in Barbados over Christmas and will head to Guyana for activities carried out at sea. The ship is expected to dock somewhere other than Georgetown.
Earlier this month, the Foreign Office Minister for the Americas and Caribbean, David Rutley, visited Guyana and later said, “The border issue has been settled for over 120 years,” adding, “Sovereign borders must be respected wherever they are in the world.”
But Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has accused the United Kingdom of provocation.
“A warship in waters to be delimited? And then? What about the commitment to good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence?”
Lopez said Venezuela would remain vigilant against the “provocations that jeopardize the peace and stability of the Caribbean and our America.”
Guyana and Venezuela claim ownership of the Essequibo county, which makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of the country’s 800,000 citizens.
On December 3, Venezuela staged a referendum in which it said 95 percent of the votes cast were in support of the annexation of the Essequibo region, and President Nicolas Maduro announced soon afterward that foreign companies working in Essequibo would have to withdraw within three months.
He said he was also proposing a special law to prohibit all companies that work under Guyana concessions from any transaction and that Caracas would create a military unit for the disputed territory but that it would be based in a neighboring Venezuelan state.
Before the referendum, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Venezuela must not take any action to seize Essequibo, which Guyana has administered for over a century.
The Joint Declaration of Argyle for Dialogue and Peace between Guyana and Venezuela, issued following talks here earlier this month between President Dr. Irfaan Ali and President Maduro, also indicated that the two countries agreed that “any controversies” between them will be resolved by international law, including the Geneva Agreement dated February 17, 1966.”
Prime Minister Gonsalves told radio listeners that he had read the Venezuelan statement very carefully and that they had considered this an act of provocation.
“They didn’t say that that was a threat. But what they said was a threat is that taken in conjunction with activities with the US Southern Command, that it appears that conjoined represent a threat of force,” Gonsalves said, noting, “the statement was not particularly belligerent. I think we will have things like this over the period.”
Gonsalves said that as an interlocutor, he has been in touch with both Presidents Ali and Maduro “with assurances given on either side of commitment to peace and continued dialogue.
“So I don’t want to express an opinion on it. Except to say that the matter concerning the US Southern Command when they do, they’ve done Tradewinds exercises in St. Vincent and other countries too, limited.
“But Venezuela will naturally be concerned. But Guyana has transmitted through me to them to indicate that these are not exercises; they are not threatening exercises.”
Gonsalves said that while Venezuela may have a different interpretation, they “have responded with a statement firmly.
“I don’t know how to be taken in Guyana, but I don’t think the statement was belligerent. It was measured, and both sides are mature enough to continue the dialogue and the quest for peace.
“What I’m hoping for is that there would be fewer acts that may be open to the interpretation of provocation or threat. That’s how I formulate it. All right. But I’m not expressing a view because I’ve been asked to continue the role, and I will continue it.”
Gonsalves said that he would continue monitoring the situation over the Christmas holidays, telling radio listeners the meeting here between Presidents Ali and Maduro on the border issue “was historic, and it’s holding.
“And I’m very hopeful of its continuation in that spirit,” he added.
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