The deliberate assembly comes after Venezuela threatened to annex the oil-rich territory of Esequibo presently in Guyana.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro will meet Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali amid a territorial dispute between the 2 nations, in response to a letter from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
Tensions have been mounting between Venezuela and Guyana in current weeks as a result of a long-running border dispute over Esequibo, an space in Guyana the place huge discoveries of offshore oil and fuel have been made.
The bilateral assembly is ready to happen on December 14 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines the place they are going to be accompanied by Gonsalves.
Venezuela’s authorities mentioned the assembly “is in an effort to protect our aspiration to keep up Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace”.
The Workplace of the President of Guyana confirmed Ali had agreed to the assembly, however added, “Guyana’s land boundary is just not up for dialogue.”
The regional blocs of the Neighborhood of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Caribbean Neighborhood (CARICOM) are mediating to convey the events collectively.
Earlier on Saturday, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has additionally been invited to Thursday’s assembly as an observer, spoke to Maduro and known as for dialogue, saying it was vital to keep away from unilateral measures that would escalate the state of affairs.
Venezuela has for many years laid declare to Essequibo, claiming that the Essequibo River to the area’s east kinds a pure border and has traditionally been recognised as such.
The nation’s newest efforts to overhaul the territory have been piqued in 2015 when ExxonMobil introduced it had discovered oil in industrial portions off the Essequibo coast.
Final weekend, voters in Venezuela additionally rejected the Worldwide Court docket of Justice’s (ICJ) jurisdiction over the world, backing the creation of a brand new state.
Maduro additionally proposed a authorities assembly {that a} invoice be despatched to the Nationwide Meeting for the creation of a “Guyana Esequiba” province.
Nonetheless, Guyana, of which Essequibo makes up greater than two-thirds and hosts 125,000 of its 800,000 residents, has administered the territory for the reason that frontiers have been decided by an arbitration panel in 1899.
