Trinidad Guardian

Guyana had filed an official protest with the United Nations against a 14-year-old maritime delimitation agreement between T&T and Venezuela two years ago.

This was long before Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur declared on Monday his government's intention to take T&T before the United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea over the delimitation agreement.

Guyana had also officially conveyed its concerns about the agreement to Caricom.

Guyana High Consul to T&T Ernie Ross said yesterday that the delimitation agreement is expected to be high on the agenda of a meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and a high-level team led by Venezuela president Hugo Chavez in Guyana today.

Arthur had said the agreement infringes on "an enormous part of Barbados' and Guyana's maritime territory, as well as one-third of Guyana's land territory."

During a telephone interview, Ross said Guyana believes it should be involved in any negotiations concerning Barbados' objections to the delimitation agreement whether it goes to arbitration or not.

"Before Barbados made any objection at all, we had made an informal objection when it (delimitation agreement) was signed in 1990," Ross said.

"In 2002, the Guyana Government formally, and officially, protested by way of a note sent to the government of Venezuela, Trinidad and the United Nations."

Ross said the UN tribunal, not Caricom, had the authority to deal with maritime issues and Guyana was waiting to see whether or not the T&T/Barbados dispute would be argued before the tribunal.

Asked if Guyana supported Barbados in its maritime dispute with T&T, Ross said: "We stand in support of Guyana."

He said Guyana and Venezuela have had an historical dispute over territorial boundaries, but the two South American neighbours maintained an overall good relationship.

Today's meeting between Jagdeo and Chavez, meant to address bi-lateral relations between Guyana and Venezuela, was scheduled before Barbados' objection to the delimitation agreement.

Ross described Guyana's relationship with T&T as "extremely healthy."

He said he has not been contacted by the governments of T&T or Guyana within the past few days, but contact may have been made directly with Jagdeo.

"We certainly want to be part of the process. We still need to be involved in the process," Ross said.

"Guyana officially recognises it is a very delicate issue between two key and very important Caricom states that has to be diplomatically handled without compromising our own territory." (JB)