No link between proposed satellite site and environmental treaty -- Rohee
Foreign Affairs Minister Clement Rohee does not see any connection between the government granting Beal Aerospace permission to establish a satellite launch site in the Waini River area and negotiations on an environmental treaty with Venezuela. At a press conference in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conference room on Friday, Rohee also reiterated that negotiations on the environmental treaty signed between Guyana and the neighbouring country have not begun. Beal Aerospace Inc of Texas, USA, had expressed interest in developing a satellite launch site in Guyana since 1997, but it had later opted for Sombrero Island off the British-dependent territory, Anguilla. However, the company returned to Guyana in late April and has since visited the proposed site--the right northern bank of the Waini River, which is near the Venezuelan border. Rohee said that the establishment of the proposed launch site would not affect negotiations on the treaty as, "I do not see any connection between the two." Responding to observations made that in the past Venezuela had objected to any major investments in the Essequibo area, which the country has laid claim to, the foreign minister said: "I suppose they will continue objecting and we will continue developing." Answering the question as to whether negotiations on the environmental treaty have begun, Rohee said: "Capital 'N', capital 'O'. Negotiations have not begun." However, Rohee said that President Janet Jagan and then president of Venezuela, Raphael Caldera, "signed the document which committed both countries to proceeding in a particular direction." He added that "if two presidents have signed a document, we have to honour that document but how we go about negotiating is another matter." During her visit to Venezuela last July, President Jagan and Caldera agreed that Guyana and Venezuela would conclude an environmental treaty within the area of their bilateral relations. At a press conference last December, Rohee had told reporters that government had not started negotiations but that it has to "start negotiations on the total package of decisions that were arrived at in the [Joint] Communique to see what would come out of that." The announcement that government was to sign an environmental treaty was severely criticised, particularly reports out of Caracas had quoted then Venezuelan foreign minister, Dr Miguel Angel Burelli Rivas, as saying that the treaty would allow Caracas to have a say in what went on in the Essequibo, the region at the centre of the long-standing border controversy between the two countries. Following the outcry in Guyana over the proposed treaty, the Foreign Ministry later issued a statement saying that the treaty would cover all of Guyana and all of Venezuela and not be restricted to particular areas in either country.
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