Presidents Nicolás Maduro and Irfaan Alí held talks for just over two hours at the facilities of Argyle International Airport in the city of Kingstown.
Nicolás Maduro and Irfaan Alí ended the meeting with a handshake. (Photo: PL)
Official sources reported that Venezuela and Guyana expressed their willingness to continue dialogue on Thursday after the conclusion of the meeting between the presidents of the two countries in Kingstown.
After speaking for just over two hours at the Argyle International Airport facilities in the city of Kingstown, leaders Nicolás Maduro and Irfaan Alí ended the meeting with a handshake, as seen in a released video.
Before the meeting between the dignitaries, the respective delegations held a meeting with representatives of Celac and Caricom, led by their presidents pro tempore Ralhp Gonsalves and Roosevelt Skerritt, respectively.
Gonsalves urged the press to appeal to wisdom, maturity and patience ahead of the meeting between Maduro and Ali.
He expressed confidence that both leaders will agree on a solution to the tensions that have arisen in recent weeks due to the territorial dispute over Essequibo.
The Prime Ministers of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerritt, and Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley, attended the meeting as moderators; the UN Secretary-General's Chief of Staff, Courtenay Rattray; among others, the Foreign Minister of Colombia, Álvaro Leyva, and the Adviser to the Presidency of Brazil, Celso Amorín.
This face-to-face meeting was promoted by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the Community of Caribbean States (Caricom) due to the urgent need to contain the escalation of the conflict and “launch an appropriate dialogue”. “
Upon his arrival at Argyle International Airport, the Bolivarian president told the press that he had come here with a mandate from the Venezuelan people, with a word of dialogue and peace, “but to defend the rights of the people and of our country.”
I have also come “to find effective, satisfactory and practical solutions in the only way possible, through dialogue and negotiation, as required by the Geneva Convention of 1966,” he said.
The Head of State celebrated that Celac and Caricom “have achieved this step” and assured that they will make the best of it so that our Latin America and the Caribbean “continue to remain a zone of peace.”
Maduro traveled in the company of, among others, first fighter Cilia Flores, Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Chancellor Yván Gil and Vice Chancellors for the Caribbean, Raúl Li Causi, and for Latin America, Rander Peña.
