CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said the deployment of a British warship to waters off the coast of Guyana breaks the “spirit” of an agreement reached between Guyanese and Venezuelan authorities, western media reported on Thursday.
Venezuela and Guyana agreed earlier in the current month to avoid the use of force and evade increasing tensions in the long border clash over the oil-rich Essequibo region.
The 160,000-square-km Essequibo area is generally recognized as area of Guyana, but in last several years Venezuela has revived its claim to the region and to offshore areas following major gas and oil discoveries.
Deployment of UK Warship to Guyana
In a statement, the UK’s defense ministry said in a statement earlier that Navy patrol vessel HMS Trent is arriving Guyana as part of a series of agreements in the region.
President Nicolas Maduro said that it is the breaching of the spirit of diplomacy, dialogue, and peace of the agreements. He maintained the deployment of ship was “almost a military threat from the UK.”
The Venezuelan President has also ordered “the activation of a joint defensive action of the Bolivarian army ” off the coast of Essequibo, he announced in a state televised broadcast, but did not provide more details.
In a statement, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the nation reserves all acts, within the framework of the Constitution and global Law, to defend its maritime and territorial integrity.
