CARACAS, December 10. /TASS/. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will serve as a venue for talks between Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Mohamed Irfaan Ali of Guyana on settling the territorial dispute between the two countries on December 14, the country’s government announced.

"The presidents will meet in [the island nation of] Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday, December 14, 2023, under the auspices of CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States - TASS) and CARICOM (the Caribbean Community - TASS), on matters related to the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela," the country’s government said in a communique.

Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Maduro had telephone conversations with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, during which "he received an offer to hold a summit with the Co-operative Republic of Guyana."

About 95% of participants in the December 3 consultative referendum voted in favor of creating the Guayana Esequiba state and making it part of Venezuela. The country’s National Assembly (parliament) on December 6 unanimously passed a bill on the protection of Guyana-Essequibo within Venezuela on first reading, based on the results of a consultative referendum. The bill provides for the creation of the 24th state of Guyana-Essequibo in the disputed territory. Maduro signed six decrees that create a legal framework to govern the annexed territory.

Territorial dispute

Venezuela and Guyana have been at odds over a 159,500-square-kilometer area west of the Essequibo River for more than a century. Tensions flared up after oil fields containing at least ten bln barrels of oil had been discovered in 2015 and Guyana provided the ExxonMobil company with a concession to explore oil in the offshore areas that had not been delimited. In April, the UN International Court of Justice found Guyana’s lawsuit against Venezuela on border demarcation based on the 1899 decision of a Paris arbitral tribunal to be admissible. The court ruling, which cited fake maps and huge pressure from the UK, handed 90% of the disputed area to London’s colony, British Guiana. Venezuela views Guyana-Essequibo as its legitimate territory and believes that the dispute does not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and insists on direct border demarcation talks with Guyana, as provided for in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.