Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today defended the Government’s decision to allow the visit of a British Navy vessel to Guyana, making it clear that the vessel was not a threat to any country and its visit here was long planned.

“This is a patrol vessel. Look at the vessel. If you go online and you google the HMS Trent, see what the capabilities are. This is by no standard a war ship. When you say war ship it connotates a different kind of aggression. This is a patrol vessel that has come to the region before, was scheduled to do an exercise in Barbados and come to Guyana, and it did so. And we made it clear, it had no aggressive intent against Venezuela. But we also have to work with our allies, there are lots of things, we need to know and to do.”

The Venezuelan Government has objected to the vessel’s visit, which was first announced by the British Government. In response to the visit, Venezuela started to build up its military presence in the bordering locations and along its coast.

Today, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton said the Guyana Government was reckless in allowing the visit of the British navy vessel at this time, when the tension between Guyana and Venezuela was thawing. Vice President Jagdeo said there is no apology to offer for the decision to allow the vessel’s visit.

“We need to ensure that our waters are safe from incursion into our Exclusive Economic Zone by a number of players, non-state players including illegal fishing and drug dealers. And part of the mission of this vessel was to look at that, help us in this regard, and in Barbados too. But we don’t have apology to make for building relationship with our allies in a defensive capacity. We didn’t do so in an aggressive manner”, Jagdeo told reporters.

Guyana and Venezuela are set to continue discussions arising from the Argyle Declaration in Brazil within the next two months.

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