The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela are set to meet on Thursday, to discuss a long-standing territorial dispute.
At the meeting, the top officials will discuss ways to defuse tensions over Essequibo, a vast oil and mineral-rich border region that makes up most of Guyana’s territory but which Venezuela voted in a referendum to consider its territory.
Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have agreed to meet on the Caribbean island of St Vincent, pushed by regional partners. The prime ministers of Barbados, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago will also attend the meeting.
A few days after the referendum, the President of Venezuela ordered his state-owned companies to explore and develop oil, gas and mines in Essequibo. Both countries put their armed forces on alert.
Venezuela insists that the Essequibo region was part of its territory at the time of Spanish colonisation and argues that the 1966 Geneva Agreement between its country, Britain and Guyana, a former colony of British Guiana, annulled the border drawn in 1899 by international arbitrators. The country’s latest efforts to overtake the territory were piqued in 2015 when ExxonMobil announced it had found oil in commercial quantities off the Essequibo coast.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Guyanese President said the Geneva Agreement states that the International Court of Justice should resolve any border disputes. Mr Ali wrote on X:
We are firm on this matter, and it will not be open for discussion.
Mr Ali also noted that he was concerned about what he described as “inaccurate assertions” contained in Mr Maduro’s letter to Gonsalves.
He disputed Mr Maduro’s description of Guyana’s oil concessions as being “in a maritime area yet to be delineated”, saying that all oil blocks “are located within Guyanese waters in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The President also rejected what he said neighbouring leading countries described as “the intervention of the US Southern Command, which has commenced operations in the disputed territory.” Mr Ali wrote in his letter to Mr Gonsalves:
Any allegation that a military operation aimed at Venezuela exists in any part of Guyanese territory is false, misleading and provocative.
Mr Maduro’s letter to Mr Gonsalves repeats Venezuela’s claim that the border drawn in 1899 was “the result of a scheme” between the US and Britain, and says the dispute “should be amicably resolved in a manner acceptable to both sides”.
Earlier on Saturday, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has also been invited to Thursday’s meeting as an observer, spoke to Maduro and called for dialogue, saying it was important to avoid unilateral measures that could escalate the situation.
Last weekend, voters in Venezuela also rejected the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) jurisdiction over the area, backing the creation of a new state. The meeting between the two leaders is due to last one day, but the problem is expected to be resolved until next year.
