British warship coming to Guyana despite Venezuela’s objections

Last Updated on Thursday, 28 December 2023, 22:10 by Denis Chabrol

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said Guyana would not ask the United Kingdom (UK) to abandon the deployment of a warship to waters off this country’s coast, in the wake of Venezuela’s concerns that that is provocative.

“No, the President has not asked the British vessel to move away from what was a planned activity and we see as routine which has no offensive intent against Venezuela,” Mr Jagdeo told a news conference at his governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) headquarters.

Ahead of the arrival of the patrol vesssel, HMS Trent, in Guyanese waters on Friday for its less than one-week long mission, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday said he has ordered “the activation of a joint defensive action of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces” off the coast of Essequibo. No details were provided.

But the Guyanese Vice President dismissed Mr Maduro’s claim that the impending presence of the HMS Trident was provocative and amounted to a violation of the December 14 Argyle Declaration for Peace and Dialogue after one-day Ali-Maduro talks in Argyle, St Vincent.

“They are routine and they are part of our building a defensive capability. Nothing that we do or we have done as threatening Venezuela. We don’t plan on invading Venezuela,” he said.

Venezuela also claims that the waters off the 160,000 square kilometer Essequibo county.

The Venezuelan leader also said the deployment of the Royal Navy vessel amounts to the “breaking of the spirit of dialogue, diplomacy and peace of the agreements,” and “practically a military threat from London.”

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said the Caracas “reserves all actions, within the framework of the Constitution and International Law, to defend its maritime and territorial integrity.”

Vice President Jagdeo said President Ali has been in touch with the Pro Tempore President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC) that helped broker the Ali-Maduro talks. Mr Jagdeo said Dr Ali made it clear that Guyana supports the Argyle Declaration in letter and spirit and  that “nothing that we did in the past or we will do in the future” would harm Venezuela  is though harm or affect will affect Venezuela.

CELAC, the Caribbean Community and Brazil helped to facilitate the talks between Presidents Ali and Maduro.

In a Facebook post Thursday evening, President Ali said

“Neither Venezuela nor any other State has anything to fear from activities within Guyana’s sovereign territory or waters.

I have iterated before that we harbor no ambitions or intentions to covet what does not belong to us. We are fully committed to peaceful relations with our neighbors and all countries in our Region. Guyana remains fully steadfast in promoting and advancing peace whilst pursuing national development.

Guyana has long been engaged in partnerships with regional and international states aimed at enhancing internal security. These partnerships pose a threat to no one and are in no way intended to be aggressive or constitute an offensive act against any State.

I wish to renew my best wishes to the people of Venezuela, our neighbours.”