Another round of ministerial talks between Belize and Guatemala concluded on Thursday in Guatemala City. This time, and for the first time, the meeting included the Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Milton Jimenez Puerto. Honduras's input was critical because, under the guidance of the OAS, both sides have agreed to enter into negotiations on the maritime issues relating to the territorial dispute. Today Belize's lead negotiator Assad Shoman along with Dylan Vernon from the advisory council on the Guatemalan claim held a press briefing. Shoman explained that under the law of the sea, Guatemala has rights to have access to the sea, and now technical and political meetings will determine the level of that access but presently neither country has stated a position on what access it will grant or demand.
Assad Shoman, Chief Negotiator
"At this first meeting no positions were put forward by any country. Basically we were discussing what is the best way to proceed and we decided that the best way was to have these technical groups do the work first and then present what they have to the Ministers.
What we want to do first is to see what would be an equitable solution to the fact that Guatemala is a disadvantaged country in the sense that Belize and Honduras' territorial seas would block off Guatemala from reaching the high seas.
Basically what they're saying when they put out their claim is that all those islands belong to Guatemala and that the only exception they might cede to is St. George's Caye because that was the subject of a specific agreement between Spain and Great Britain and so on. We are not taking any position that will in anyway dilute our belief in our right to all the territory that we occupy so there is no question of cession being discussed.
All I can say is that if Guatemala, like Belize intends so, respects and follow through with the September 7th agreement, I am confident, if they do that, that we will find a solution in this process to this long standing claim because if we don't agree at the table then we go to court. Of course that is subject in both countries to a referendum.
What we need is to put finality to this because believe me, if Guatemala continues to claim Belize, we will continue to have problems and we will continue to have our security threatened and our people, especially along the border, being in a threatened position. So I think it is not something that w choose, whether or not to solve this. And to say that we believe it is ours and so we don't need to try and solve it is not a realistic option."
