Canada expects movement in Guyana-Suriname border talks
CANADA expects the new government in Suriname to advance talks on resolving the fresh border dispute that flared with Guyana in June, visiting Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa, Mr David Kilgour has said here. Suriname gunboats chased out the Canadian oil firm CGX Energy Inc. from a drilling site in Guyana waters on June 3, triggering a fresh boundary dispute with Guyana. CGX was forced to pull out a drilling rig from the concession zone where it believes it has located at least two potentially world class giant oilfields. On an official visit here, Kilgour told reporters Friday a new government in Suriname "augurs well for the future in terms of trying to bring the two sides together in something like joint jurisdiction/management until the matter of the boundary can be sorted out." "This has happened in numerous places around the world where there has been a problem like this", Kilgour told a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Georgetown. After several rounds of talks failed to get the rig back to the site, Guyana last month suspended talks with Suriname until a new government took office. Guyana has advocated joint management of the disputed area until the maritime boundary is defined but Suriname did not agree and the matter is to be taken up with the new government of President Ronald Venetiaan which took office two Saturdays ago. Noting that if the oil can be recovered, "it would be an enormous advantage to both countries", Kilgour said, "I can't believe that the new government in Suriname is going to try to be difficult about this given the stakes" involved for the people of Suriname. "I believe 85 per cent of the oil lies on the presumed Suriname side of the dispute, so I am very hopeful...that something can now be achieved to the benefit of both sides", he said. Kilgour said he expressed regrets that no solution could have been found to allow the return of the CGX oil rig to the `Eagle' site. "But I commended your government on the way it has dealt with the crisis and its efforts to find a mutually agreeable solution." The Canadian Secretary of State told reporters he is from Alberta, the oil/gas province in Canada. "When we discovered oil in our province it was enormously helpful to all of the people of Alberta. (There were) social programmes, better schools, better roads...all kinds of fallout - software, hi-tech. "Oil has been an enormous boon to the province that I live in", he said. If the deposits of oil in that area can be recovered, the people of this country and Suriname can both benefit enormously, he pointed out. He said Canada was "extremely anxious" to work for the settlement of boundaries "wherever they are in the world because we've had our own problems in Canada on that issue." He said Canadian High Commissioner here, Mr Jacques Crete served in West Africa "and he knows that there has been enormous problems with boundaries in Africa". "There have been enormous problems with boundaries I guess in all parts of the world, and it's important to the six billion people who live on this planet that borders should be settled peacefully without loss of life or blood. So Canada is anxious to help you secure peacefully your boundary." Suriname is also claiming a section of southeast Guyana and the border Corentyne River. Former Canadian High Commissioner here, Mr Simon Wade, in Kilgour's delegation, noted that the border talks with Suriname were under the auspices of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to which both countries belong. "And this is very, very important if CARICOM has the ability to solve problems within the CARICOM region; we congratulate CARICOM and its members", Wade said. He also referred to the role of the UN Secretary General's special representative, Mr Oliver Jackman, in the border controversy with Venezuela, noting "processes are in place". "...there are a number of multilateral bodies and mechanisms that can and do work, and these are open to Guyana at the present time", Wade said. Wade is now the Director of Central America and the Caribbean Division of the Canada Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Guyana Foreign Minister, Mr Clement Rohee said Guyana had briefed the Canada delegation on "recent developments on our frontiers." "They have been fully briefed in respect of Guyana's position and in respect of the role of the Good Officer (Jackman) process and in respect of the way we see the matter evolving in the not too distant future", he said.
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