[www.inewsguyana.com] – Norman Girvan, the official appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Personal Representative on the Border Controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, voiced satisfaction over the progress made by both countries in the past week.
The step forward helped to overcome the strained situation following the detention of a US ship by Venezuela last week.
Girvan said in a communiqué on Monday that he held “very fruitful” separate meetings with the foreign ministers of both countries last Thursday in Port – of – Spain.
Foreign ministers Elías Jaua of Venezuela and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana “stressed the excellent bilateral relations existing between the two states,” Girvan said.
The two foreign ministers welcomed an initiative of the UN envoy for a number of steps to tackle the border dispute of the two countries.
“Such steps may include a schedule of meetings to advance the process in the upcoming months,” said Girvan in the communiqué. The Jamaican diplomat was appointed for the position in April 2010.
Both foreign offices disclosed last Friday that the recent tension resulting from the detention of the ship engaged in oil prospecting had been overcome. In a joint statement, they promised to work on delimitation of the maritime border.
Rodrigues-Birkett and Jaua “agreed to explore mechanisms in the context of international law to deal with the issue of maritime delimitation,” the Venezuelan Foreign Office stated in a press release last Friday. [El Universal]
