Guyana united in foreign policy since independence – UG lecture hears

Border controversy case

By Shemuel Fanfair

After the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that Guyana submitted its memorial on jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the continuing border controversy case with Venezuela; several Ambassadors who represented this country have praised Guyana for being united in its stance on the issue. This was underscored at the University of Guyana’s (UG) Vice Chancellor’s 10th Renaissance Lecture held in the Education Lecture Theatre (ELT) on Monday evening.

The University has been hosting a series of lectures that have covered wide-ranging issues, including strengthening the core pillars of academic advancement; engaging policy leaders to strengthen UG and the enhancing of the university’s educational entrepreneurship. Monday’s lecture dealt with Guyana on the International Stage with special focus on engagement at the 2018 United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
Director of Guyana’s Foreign Service Institute, Ambassador Ronald Austin was one of several speakers who addressed the gathering which included peers, students from UG and teacher-training institution, Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and other invited guests, including members from the diplomatic community. Ambassador Austin in his presentation highlighted that there has been “unity” in Guyana’s foreign policy, noting that there has been minimal change since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in May 1966.
“If you look at Guyana’s foreign policy since 1966 and as different Governments took over like in 1992 for example, there has been very little variation in the foreign policy perused by the different Governments and I think that is mainly because I think that every Guyanese understands that there is a threat,” he told the gathering.
Ambassador Cedric Joseph also commented that this threat is real as he joined in praising Guyana for filing the memorial with the ICJ on Monday. He noted that the Commonwealth of Nations is another body Guyana can use as an avenue to advance its case as it has done at the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the United Nations (UN). Speaking on Guyana’s gains at the UN, Joseph praised fellow Ambassadors for their work in pushing this republic on the international stage, noting that Guyana was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on two occasions, from 1975-1977 and in the early 1990s.
The UN Security Council has five permanent members, namely; the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia, and the United States. There are also 10 non-permanent members which serve for a term of two years. These are elected by the UN General Assembly. This Security Council could play a crucial role if Venezuela ever decides to take any military action against this country, should the World Court uphold the 1899 Arbitral Agreement and rule in Guyana’s favour to keep the boundaries in place.
In fact, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge told Guyana Times in January that Government is prepared to call on the UN Security Council if Venezuela ever moved to invade Guyana. He had said that it would mean that the Spanish-speaking country would be breaking the zone of peace based on the same agreement that was brokered and sanctioned by the United States.
Venezuela has opted against participating in the legal proceedings filed by Guyana in the border controversy matter and is claiming that the ICJ lacks jurisdiction to preside over proceedings. However, in a statement that Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge released and later presented to the National Assembly on Monday, it was outlined that Guyana’s submission to the world court aims to have ICJ validate an arbitral award that settled the international boundaries in 1899. This comes five months after Government filed a Memorial in June 2018 to resolve the border controversy after Venezuela refused to participate in proceedings. Minister Greenidge said Guyana has no doubt that the ICJ has jurisdiction to resolve the controversy which has undermined Guyana’s ability to develop its natural resources.
As reported, the memorial states that Venezuela is not correct in arguing that the controversy must be resolved exclusively by friendly negotiations, a claim which Guyana says is not justified in the terms of the final 1966 Geneva Agreement to which both parties agreed. It adds that the boundaries were set out between Guyana and Venezuela in 1897 before October 1899 award.
It was in January 2018, that UN Secretary General António Guterres chose adjudication by the Court as the means for finally resolving the controversy with Guyana filing its case in March of this year. In 2015, after US oil giant ExxonMobil announced its first of many oil finds that Venezuela renewed its claim to two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, the Essequibo region.