The UK Navy will send a patrol ship to Guyana as a sign of British support for the Commonwealth country.
The South American country is in a dispute with Venezuela over a mineral-rich border area. HMS Trent will take part in joint exercises with Guyana after Christmas. A Ministry of Defence spokesman 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 dispute erupted after the discovery of oil in Guyana and escalated when Venezuela voted in a referendum on 3 December to claim two-thirds of its smaller neighbour’s territory.
Venezuela insists Essequibo was part of its territory during Spanish colonialism and argues that the 1966 Geneva Agreement with Britain and the country then called British Guiana, now Guyana, annulled the 1899 boundary drawn by international arbitrators.
The offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent is in Barbados over Christmas and will then head to Guyana for work to be carried out at sea. The ship is not expected to dock in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city.
