Attorney-General to head team for Suriname talks
Stabroek News
October 24, 2002
Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh is heading the Guyana delegation to the joint meeting of the National Border Commissions of Guyana and Suriname taking place tomorrow and Saturday in Paramaribo.
This meeting is expected to address the best practices for joint management and exploration in the disputed offshore zone that both countries are claiming. The issue came to the fore in June, 2002 after the Surinamese Navy forcibly ejected a rig that had been licensed to drill for oil in Guyana's waters.
A press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the other members of the delegation are: Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper; Programme Manager, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Rudy Collins; Dr Barton Scotland, Adviser; Newell Dennison, Manager, Petroleum Division, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission; Rosemary Cadogan, Senior Legal Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Keith George, Head, Frontiers Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Damone Younge, State Counsel, Attorney-General's Chambers.
The joint meeting at the weekend should have been held by mid-May but was rescheduled to accommodate meetings of a sub-committee appointed to look at best practices around the world for the joint exploitation and management of marine resources in disputed maritime areas in order to make a recommendation for the consideration of the border commissions. Those meetings concluded in late June. Since then the two sides had been unable to agree on a date convenient to both with meetings set for July, August and September being abandoned.
The meeting is part of a series of engagements between Guyana and Suriname, which includes President Bharrat Jagdeo's official visit to Suriname from January 28-30 and the sixth meeting of the Guyana/Suriname Co-operation Council on January 14-15.