FROM all credible reports last week's Third Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) on Margarita Island could be considered a 'successful' event.

Even if, for host President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, it coincided with paralysing industrial action on the mainland that would have been embarrassing for his popularly elected government.

The ACS Secretary General, Dr Nornman Girvan, has given a positive spin to the two-day summit in pointing to concrete achievements.

These included the "Margarita Declaration" to establish the region of the Greater Caribbean as a "Zone of Cooperation" as well as the signing by all 25-member countries of the Convention for a Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean and the access by eight countries to the "Caracas Energy Agreement' for the supply of oil on concessionary terms from Venezuela.

Like Barbados, Guyana acted in what is viewed as this country's national interest in signing the Caracas Energy Accord, as some other CARICOM states, including Jamaica, had previously done.

Contrary to the assumptions and charges of critics, the Accord can in no way compromise Guyana's political sovereignty or undermine its historical opposition to Venezuela's claim to some two thirds of this country's 83,000 square miles.

THAT MAP
In this context, it was commendable for future good relations that Venezuela quickly responded to a protest from Guyana in withdrawing a controversial map prepared for the ACS Summit showing the Essequibo region as part of Venezuelan territory.

If Venezuelan strategists on the border dispute had hoped to score a propaganda point in having such a map on display, then they had seriously miscalculated in revealing surprising diplomatic insensitivity for such an occasion.

The ACS leaders could not possibly ignore the protest from Guyana on such an issue, aware as they are that the dispute, arising from Venezuela's rejection of the Award of an 1899 Tribunal, is currently engaging the attention of the Good Office of the United Nations Secretary General.

Significantly, both Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Chavez steered away from any reference to the border controversy during their informal bilateral meeting that was described by the Guyanese head of state as marking "a considerable warming of relationships".

They know their colleagues in the ACS and CARICOM are depending on them to demonstrate political maturity and statesmanship in seeking to achieve a peaceful and practical resolution to an age-old dispute.