VENEZUELA-GUYANA-ESSEQUIBO-Shadow Foreign Minister formally asks for Foreign Relations Committee meeting

Last Updated on Friday, 22 March 2024, 17:53 by Denis Chabrol

-Todd promises swift meeting

Opposition Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amanza Walton-Desir on Friday officially wrote Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd requesting a meeting of the parliiamentary bipartisan Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr Todd told Demerara Waves Online News that the meeting would be called very soon on his return to Guyana. “It is going to be done. We can have a meeting on that to brief the Committee. That is not a problem. We can do that in. A swift manner,” he said.

In a statement, Ms Walton-Desir said she Friday ‘dispatched a letter” to Mr Todd, “calling for the urgent convening of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations “in the wake of Venezuela’s purported creation of a new state in Essequibo.”

A lawyer by profession, the Shadow Foreign Minister echoed the Guyana government’s position that Venezuela’s purported inclusion of Essequibo as a State violates the Maduro-Ali Declaration in Argyle, St Vincent on December 14, 2023 and a decision by the World Court that neither country must do anything to escalate tensions.

“This latest, and extremely troubling development places Venezuela in clear breach of the Argyle Declaration as well as the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which had unanimously ruled that Venezuela should refrain from taking any action which would interfere with Guyana’s administration of the Essequibo region and that both parties should refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute currently before the court” she said.

In her statement, she recalled writing to Minister Todd on the 12th of February 2024, requesting the committee be convened in order to receive official updates on the reports on the buildup of Venezuelan troops on the border. To date there has been no response.

MP Walton-Desir said she was concerned that the failure of the government to share information with the Parliamentary Opposition in a timely manner undermines the ability to provide critical support on this national issue.

The Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations last met on the 21st November 2023.

Foreign Minister Todd said government would be updating “everyone” officially including the Caribbean Community, Commonwealth, CELAC, and the United Nations as well as “our traditional partners.”

Venezuela said that for the time being the headquarters of the Essequibo State would be based in Tumeremo until the controversy over the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award is settled.

Guyana maintains that the 160,000 square kilometre area is rightfully hers and that the International Court of Justice will be the only means to settle tge dispute.