President meets with UN Secretary General’s Personal Representative on border controversy

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 April 2017, 21:42 by Denis Chabrol

President David Granger, this evening, met with the United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s Personal Representative in the Good Offices Process on the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, Ambassador Dag Havland Nylander.

No details about the meeting were provided.

Other members of the high-level delegation were Mr. Guillermo Kendall of the UN Department of Political Affairs, Mr. David Hutchinson from the UN Office of Legal Affairs and Mr. Juan Jeannet-Acre from the Policy and Mediation Division in the Department of Political Affairs.  They were accompanied by acting UN Resident Coordinator and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Country Director, Mr. Martin Odiit.

Accompanying the President at the meeting, which was held at State House, were Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge, Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon, Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela Guyana’s, Ambassador Cheryl Miles, Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Audrey Waddell, foreign policy expert Sir Shridath Ramphall, in the role of Advisor and Legal Consultant, Professor Payam Akhavan.

Ambassador Nylander was appointed earlier this year to ensure the continuation of the Good Offices Process as laid out by the Secretary General until the end of 2017 with a strengthened mandate of mediation, with the understanding that “if by the end of 2017, the Secretary-General concludes that no significant progress has been made towards arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly request that he refrain from doing so”.