Guyana's president Irfaan Ali and Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro will meet on 14 December as tensions increase over Caracas' claim to Guyana's resource-rich Essequibo province, Guyana's government said.
Ali and Maduro will meet in St Vincent where they will be joined by Brazil's president Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva, who has agreed to act as a mediator, Guyana said on Saturday.
The meeting is being convened by chairman of regional trade group Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St Vincent.
But Guyana's position in rejecting Venezuela's claim to the Essequibo province will not be changed in the meeting, Ali said on Saturday.
"We have said from the beginning that we are not opposed to conversation," Ali said. "We have to co-exist as neighbors so we are not opposed to any conversation.
"But in having that conversation, we are establishing very clearly that the matter of the border controversy is before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that will not change," Ali said.
Venezuela have taken several actions to press its decades-old claim in the wake of a 3 December referendum in which it said the public voted in favor of doing so. This has included arresting one Venezuelan and one US citizen that it accused of sabotage related to the vote.
It also issued a decree to create a unit of state-owned PdV called PdV Esequibo to "manage the subsoil resources in the new state of Guayana Esequibo," the company said. But officials denied the veracity of a document circulating indicated that workers in the new unit would earn $450-$6,000/month, significantly higher than in its parent company.
