A meeting Thursday between the presidents of Guyana and Venezuela over a recently renewed territorial dispute will not be the last, according to a joint statement.
Following a two hour meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines to discuss Caracas' claim to Guyana's resource-rich Essequibo province, both countries said they would not threaten the other with the use of military force directly or indirectly and refrain from escalating any conflict or disagreement between them.
A joint commission of the foreign ministers and other staff from the two countries would be formed to continue to discuss issues and submit a report within three months, the statement said. Representatives from both countries plan to meet again in Brazil within the next three months.
Prior to the meeting, hosted by St Vincent prime minister Ralph Gonsalves, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said he hoped the meeting would be the start of direct talks between the two countries. But Guyana president Irfaan Ali rejected direct negotiations to resolve the dispute, saying the meeting was meant to "de-escalate the conflict," and that the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to rule over the disputed matters.
Essequibo — which Venezuela calls Guayana Esequiba — makes up the western two-thirds of Guyana. The region's border has been in dispute for decades, which has prevented an agreement on a maritime border. The expansion of leasing for offshore oil exploration into the region heightened recent tensions.
The US and UK have both backed Guyana's position that the ICJ should be the arbiter of the dispute.
"We don't want to see this come to blows," a White House official said today. "There's no reason for it to, and our diplomats are engaged in real time on this."
