7 News Belize

Bze-Guat Diplomats Search For A Sarstoon Solution
posted (April 12, 2016)
Things have been heating up on the Sarstoon - but, while that southern flashpoint simmers, diplomats from both Belize and Guatemala have been trying to take the hostility down a few notches in bi-lateral talks.

Those talks happened last week Friday in Benque Viejo Town, at the OAS Adjacency Zone Office. High ranking Political, Diplomatic and military leaders of both sides engaged in frank discussions on how to defuse tensions in the Sarstoon area.

This evening in Belmopan, Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington, Ambassador Assad Shoman, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a press conference to update the nation on what exactly came out of those meetings.

Here's what Elrington had to say just a few hours ago:

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"We also had agreed that we will try to meet as quickly as possible after the Easter Break and so we did that meeting last week Friday. Prior to the meeting, we developed a draft of what we wanted to see incorporated in agreement with the Guatemalans. The draft was developed in consultation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Belize Defense Force, General Jones, and the Opposition. We completed that draft on Friday the 8th of April at a meeting of the Belize Delegation at the San Ignacio Hotel. at that meeting, participating were foreign minister myself, CEO Sylvester, General Jones, Ambassador Rosado, Alexis from Guatemala, and representing the leader of the opposition was Dr. Assad Shoman. In the Belize internal meeting in San Ignacio, we discussed our wish for the OAS to participate in the discussions between Belize and Guatemala. We thought that was very important, to have the OAS present. Our team's overall aims for the negotiations over the Sarstoon, as discussed were as follows, to reach an agreement with Guatemala as early as possible. The implementation of which will not be delayed by Guatemalan administrative procedures or legislative requirements. To ensure that any agreement reached would protect Belize's position and maintain peace and stability in the area until such time as Guatemala's claims and resolved. And to ensure that the OAS has a role in helping the two countries in maintaining peace and stability in the area. The meeting therefore was almost exclusively to formulate this modus vivendi, this agreement for utilizing the Sarstoon by both out militaries and by both the civilian populations of the two countries. That was the intention."

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