Stabroek News
April 27, 2001

President Bharrat Jagdeo raised the resumption of border talks with his Surinamese counterpart, Ronald Venetiaan last week at the Summit of the Americas and he told reporters yesterday that the discussions would be restarted once things were back to normal here.

Last year, the two countries failed, after several months of negotiations to reach agreement for the Canadian-owned oil exploration company, CGX Resources Inc, to drill for oil in an area in Guyana's waters but which Suriname claims. Surinamese gunboats had evicted the company's rig from an area within Guyana's waters. The talks with the Jules Wijdenbosch administration were suspended to allow the Venetiaan administration to settle in, but apart from a meeting in Brasilia last year at the summit of South American leaders, there has been no contact between the two sides.

President Jagdeo met President Venetiaan while in Quebec, Canada at the Summit of the Americas. He also met Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez as well as the President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

He told a press conference yesterday that in his meeting with President Cardoso, the Brazil-Guyana Road was the most important issue discussed. Transport and Hydraulics Minister, Anthony Xavier, is currently in Bolivia at a meeting with his South American counterpart pushing for support for the construction of the road.