Latest update January 13th, 2025 3:10 AM
Latest News
- Oil deal requires Govt. to formally write Exxon to request renegotiation – Dr. Adams
- Govt. eyeing another US$1.5B loan from US EXIM Bank
- Israeli siege of north Gaza leaves 5,000 dead, missing after 100 days
- More traffic cops using bodycams after Hicken’s warning
- Second terminal for CJIA on govt’s 2025 agenda
Gov’t goes easy on Bouterse’s New River claim
Desi Bouterse, President of Suriname
Georgetown seems to have decided not to protest the latest statement by Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse that the New River Triangle in southern Guyana belongs to Suriname.
The statement was made by Bouterse in Parliament on June 7.
Bouterse has enjoyed a cozy relationship with President Bharrat Jagdeo since he, Bouterse, was elected president in 2010. He has since made several visits here.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, quoted Prime Minister Samuel Hinds as saying that the “presence” of the dispute does not affect the “burgeoning engagements at the presidential level.” Dr Luncheon said he could attest to that.
Asked about the possibility that Georgetown could lodge a protest over Bouterse’s stated claim of the New River Triangle, Dr Luncheon said that this is a matter left to foreign affairs and national security specialists, but gave no indication that such a protest was expected.
Bouterse is quoted by Surinamese newspaper De Ware Tijd as saying that his country will be pursuing actions, based on international laws, to explore the possibility of the issue being handled by means of a “friendly settlement”.
This is despite the fact that the United Nations tribunal rules in the Guyana-Suriname dispute over maritime territory, giving both a share of a potentially oil-rich offshore basin. The agreement is legally binding on both parties.
Guyana was the country Bouterse, a former coup leader who holds a drug trafficking conviction from Holland, visited when he was elected President.
Dr Luncheon referred back to the Surinamese leader’s visit last September when Jagdeo indicated that while the border dispute exists, it should not prevent fundamental collaboration between the two countries.
He said that the existence of the dispute would not be used to “impair” or “frustrate” the level of cooperation between the two countries, since the Joint Commission between Guyana and Suriname has been elevated to the status of a Presidential Commission.
In February 2010, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues expressed Guyana’s deep concern regarding public statements made in the neighbouring country about a past plan to invade this country’s New River Triangle.
At the time, Rodrigues had expressed this country’s intention to protest at the international level of Suriname’s continued aggression.
The Office of the President had then cited Suriname’s agitation “for the annexation of the New River Triangle area” but declared definitely that this was a sovereign part of Guyana territory.”
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Social media reporting is a double-edged sword
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Social media has undoubtedly changed how we share and receive information. It has made... more
Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Weekend Cartoon
