Ahead of Thursday’s meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, President Irfaan Ali has stated that while he will be going into the meeting with President Nicholas Maduro with an open mind, he has made it very clear that there will be no negotiation on Guyana’s Essequibo region and there will be no negotiation or compromise on Guyana’s case before the International Court of Justice on the border controversy.

The meeting between the two Presidents is set for this coming Thursday in St. Vincent. The meeting which was brokered leaders representing CELAC and CARICOM, aims to quell the current tension between the two states in recent weeks, which has been fueled by Venezuela’s aggression.

Speaking to reporters last evening, the President said he will not be budging from Guyana’s long held position that the border dispute was settled since 1899 and the Essequibo belongs to Guyana. 

“There is absolutely no wavering from this position and I want to make it very clear that this is not a Guyana position, this is a position from the Geneva agreement, this is a position in which the United Nations Secretary General ascribed the settlement of this case to the ICJ, so this is a position that all of us have to respect,” the President tell reporters.

Asked why he thought it necessary to still meet Mr. Maduro when there will be no negotiations, the President said he has no issue with having dialogue in the interest of the region. He stressed that for there to a peaceful co-existence, there must be dialogue.

“We don’t live in a region by ourselves. We have respect for our regional and bi-lateral and regional partners. We have made our position clear, we are a peaceful country, our only ambition is to secure and protect what belongs to us and we have absolutely no difficulty meeting with any of our neighbors to ensure that we talk about development, we continue work as neighbors and coexist as neighbors and work to ensure that this region remains a region of peace,” the Head of State noted.

The President said he has already outlined to regional partners where the country stands in relation to the controversy, and there will be no budging from that position.

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