Talks with Chavez, Venetiaan slated
President Bharrat Jagdeo is expected to leave today for Brasilia, where he will attend the Summit of South American Presidents tomorrow and Friday. He will be accompanied by Foreign Minister, Clement Rohee and in his absence, Prime Minister Sam Hinds will perform the duties of president and Agriculture Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud will carry out the functions of prime minister. A release from the Office of the President yesterday said that the Summit was expected to address issues of relevance to the various states including the questions of "democracy, trade, illicit drug trafficking and related crimes and information technology". The release said too that while in Brasilia, President Jagdeo will meet President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on Thursday. He will also meet President Ronald Venetiaan, who assumed the presidency of Suriname earlier this month. Expected to be high on the agenda of the meeting between the Guyanese and Surinamese presidents is the resumption of talks on joint exploitation and management of the disputed maritime area which broke down last month in Kingston, Jamaica. The talks were facilitated by Jamaica's Prime Minister, PJ Patterson. On June 3, Surinamese gunboats evicted an oil rig operated by CGX Energy Inc, a Canadian company, from its drilling position in Guyana's maritime jurisdiction. After the Kingston meeting, Prime Minister Patterson had invited the two countries to name a team of experts which would be mandated to negotiate an agreement. With Chavez, a number of issues are likely to be discussed including Venezuela's interference with certain investments here.
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