Jagdeo, Chavez break the ice Serious issues for next meeting Stabroek News April 20, 2000 The meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Cuba was mainly a getting-to-know-you exercise, and they have agreed that issues about the border would be among the many they would discuss when they next meet. Opportunities for such sessions would occur when they attend the Millennium Summit in New York and at the meeting being convened in Brazil by the President of Brazil to discuss cooperation among the countries of South America. Speaking with reporters yesterday at a press conference at the Presidential Secretariat, President Jagdeo said that at his suggestion they both agreed at the recent South Summit in Havana that when they meet again the border issue would be just one of the many issues they should discuss. He said that he and his Venezuelan counterpart also agreed that they needed "to foster greater friendship amongst our people; we need to foster greater understanding; we need to energise the High Level Bilateral Commission so that the people can have more interaction between the two countries especially in the areas of trade and the movement of people." Assistance with the Spanish programme in the schools was also explored with his counterpart, the President said, explaining that he felt that the language barrier was one of the gravest constraints to developing greater relations at the people-to-people level. President Jagdeo told the reporters too that he had informed President Chavez about his discussions with UN Good Officer, Oliver Jackman who visited Guyana last month and they both restated their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the border controversy within the UN Good Officer process. Commenting on the issues of personal interests they discussed, Mr Jagdeo said Chavez had mentioned that "he doesn't know much about cricket and that when he comes here he hopes that he can learn much more about cricket and that he can teach me basically the fundamentals about baseball." About the Beal deal to establish a rocket launch site here which Venezuela was trying to block, President Jagdeo confirmed that all the outstanding issues had been resolved and that an agreement should be signed shortly.