Georgetown : With just a matter of hours left before President David Granger addresses the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Head of State says his mission will be to call on the UN to offer some form of solid protection for small States.
“Guyana has been subjected, from the time of independence, to provocation and harassment from Venezuela and we are calling on the United Nations to create some form of collective security to protect small States,” President Granger said.
The President expressed these sentiments as he spoke to local journalists after a long day of bilateral meetings, which saw him meeting with the Head of State of Chile, President Michelle Bachelet and Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, as well as the Secretary General of The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Ernesto Samper Pizano.
President Granger pointed out that it is impossible for all the small States that have come into being through the collapse of the old empires, to protect their own territories and deal with all the other forms of security on their own. “So what we are asking the United Nations to fulfil is its mandate to protect small States,” the President said.
Meanwhile, even after having met with the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro, President Granger said his address to the General Assembly will not be any different.
“The developments were very small and tentative. I appreciate that we have moved forward, but Venezuela still maintains its territorial claim on Guyana, and Venezuela has used armed force against Guyana so I don’t regard the matter as settled,” President Granger said. He added that regardless of what was discussed during that meeting, the UN still as a role to play. The President’s position is that the situation, which now faces Guyana, has been one enacted from time to time over the past fifty years. “We want a permanent solution, we want to live in peace,” President Granger reiterated.
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