CARIBBEAN ROUND-UP: Guyana/Venezuela friendship bond

jamaicaobserver.comRickey Singh Friday, May 02, 2003

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Guyana and Venezuela have decided to forge a friendship bond to mark a strengthening of relations between the two South American neighbours that are yet to resolve an age-old territorial dispute.

The foreign ministers of the two states, which share 800 miles of border, announced a joint 21-point communiqué following a two-day visit to the Guyanese capital of a delegation from Caracas, headed by Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton.

Guyana's foreign minister, Rudy Insanally, said his meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart was a most productive event and augurs well for the strengthening of relations.

One of the more immediate issues discussed was arrangements for a coming reciprocal state visit to Guyana by President Hugo Chavez, in response to that made last year by the Guyanese head of state, Bharrat Jagdeo.

The sale of fuel to Guyana on concessionary terms under the Caracas Energy Co-operation Agreement that the Chavez government has with a number of Caricom states, including Barbados and Jamaica, was among matters reflected in the communiqué at the end of the Insanally-Chaderton meeting Wednesday.

Broad areas of agreement on commercial, economic and technical co-operation, as well as efforts by Guyana and Venezuela to deepen the process of regional integration within the framework of the 25-nation Association of Caribbean States (ACS), are included in the communiqué.

Chaderton paid courtesy calls on President Jagdeo, speaker of the Parliament, Ralph Ramkarran, and secretary-general of the Caribbean Community, Edwin Carrington while in Georgetown.