At the top of the news, we told you about the press conference that Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington and Ambassador Assad Shoman hosted to discuss the Belize/Guatemala bilateral talks, which happened last week Friday.
The main topic was the 11-point draft proposal that the Belize Delegation has proposed to diffuse tensions in the Sarstoon. But, they also discussed how they will raise the funds to keep the OAS Office in the Adjacency Zone open.
As we've reported, it costs 2.5 million US dollars per year to run the office - and the Group of Friendly Nations who pay the bills are getting antsy because, 8 years after the office opened, both sides are still at a stalemate.
Elrington told us about the latest deliberations on the endangered OAS Adjacency Zone office:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Reference was made during the meeting to initiatives which we will have to take to try to secure funds to keep the OAS office open and the suggestion was that because of the meeting the Foreign Minister of Guatemala and myself will be going to Taiwan for the inauguration of the new president, we would certainly take that opportunity to try to raise funds and then we are invited to another meeting shortly thereafter in Turkey and the thought was that we would in fact piggy back on that meeting in Taiwan to got to Turkey to try to raise the funds. The government of Belize, the Opposition, the OAS and everyone concern is very interested in ensuring that the OAS presence remained in the adjacency zone. But it cost somewhere in the vicinity of 2.5 million US dollars to keep those people there annually and we always have to be taking every effort to source those funds."
As you are aware, the OAS presence has been instrumental in the verification of incidents on the Western Frontier whenever there are confrontations between Belize and Guatemala.
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