And while it is a trilateral meeting - we asked if Belize will be able to raise an important bilateral issue:
Jules Vasquez:
"Will there be any occasion to bring up the repeated incursions into Belizean territorial waters by Guatemalan navy vessels?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"We bring that up on every occasion, every opportunity. I, you know, Mexico will be present, so I don't know about you know, the appropriateness of, of, of raising that in front of… But, uh, I can assure you that this matter is raised at every opportunity. On Monday of next week, we have the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Home Affairs meeting with their counterparts. Again, this will be discussed. This will be on the agenda. Um, we take that issue very seriously and we do everything we can to ensure that Belize's territorial integrity, our sovereignty is protected."
Jules Vasquez:
"Is the pattern of behavior concerning to you though, that, you know, uh, you make a complaint and then it happens again. It's almost like a, it seems like a low grade microaggression or provocation."
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Yeah, we are concerned about it. We are concerned about it. And we do recognize that, listen, we. we're on a path to a peaceful resolution of, of this unfounded claim, uh, through the International Court of Justice. And we do recognize that, you know, these things may continue until we have a definitive judgment from the court. But we, as I said, we keep working with the Guatemalans, uh, in every op, every opportunity that we've raised it with them, they have said to us. Listen, we are going to address this matter."
"The foreign minister, the president has said, we do not, you know, support any of those activities. They have said that directly to us. So, um, you know, we, we certainly continue to work with them to address that issue."
