While President Irfaan Ali has made it clear that there will be no negotiation of the border controversy or Guyana’s case before the International Court, at Thursday’s meeting with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader intends to raise the issue and use the meeting as the beginning of dialogue on the matter.

The meeting is set to take place in St. Vincent under the auspices of CARICOM and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

In accepting the invitation to the meeting, the Venezuelan President has stated that he intends to use the meeting to discuss the territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.

Maduro said his country still believes that the settlement of the controversy should be through dialogue, adding that he is attending the meeting with a mandate from the people of Venezuela, who voted in a recent referendum, laying claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region and rejecting the involvement of the International Court to settle the controversy.

While the Court has established jurisdiction to hear the matter, Maduro insists that the Court’s involvement violates the Geneva Agreement on the controversy.

He said the meeting will serve as an opportunity to clear up the elements that have aggravated the controversy.

President Irfaan Ali has said that there will be no budging of Guyana’s position that the border dispute was settled since 1899 and that the Essequibo belongs to Guyana. He has also stated that there will be no negotiation or compromise on Guyana’s case before the International Court, seeking to fully affirm the 1899 Arbitral Award.

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