Jagdeo impatient with Suriname/Guyana border talks
Stabroek News
December 29, 2003
President Bharrat Jagdeo says he is very disappointed with the lack of progress in talks between the Guyana/Suriname Border Commissions.
In a television interview he gave in New Amsterdam on Christmas Eve he noted,
"Our solution to the border issue would always have to be peaceful and we would have to find ways to deal with this issue. We just can't let the resources of two poor countries be tied up and not making use of them."
The border commissions' meetings were reactivated last year following Jagdeo's visit to Suriname with the mandate of setting in motion the resolution of the maritime and territorial border disputes. They were asked, among other things, to look at best practices for joint exploration of the marine and hydrocarbon resources in the disputed area located off the Corentyne Coast.
But the two commissions have not met since June and further talks are not scheduled any time soon.
At the June meeting, it was agreed that Guyana would supply information related to the licence granted to CGX. An official told this newspaper that certain information had been provided to Suriname. In the past the exchange of information had been the cause of delays in meetings being held.
Other factors cited previously for the postponement include delays occasioned by Suriname's hosting of Carifesta in August, and the subsequent protest from Suriname about the map of Guyana depicted on the T-shirts of the Guyanese contingent to the festival, which showed the internationally recognised borders of the two states. Following the festival, a Paramaribo newspaper quoted a Surinamese government official as saying that the border commissions' meetings would not be reconvened.
The proposal for joint exploration was raised again by Guyana in the aftermath of Suriname's ejection of an oil rig working for the Canadian company CGX Resources, which had been licensed to explore for oil off the Corentyne coast, from its drilling position in Guyana territorial waters on June 3, 2000.