Guyana warned on Monday that any refusal by Venezuela to comply with an eventual ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the decades-old border controversy between the two countries would breach international law, after oral hearings concluded at the World Court in The Hague.
Both countries presented arguments in two rounds of oral pleadings between May 4 and May 11. The ICJ will now deliberate before issuing a final judgment, which would be legally binding on both parties.
Guyana reiterated that it would abide by the court’s ruling “whatever it may be,” while warning that Venezuela’s refusal to recognize the ICJ’s jurisdiction would breach its obligations under international law and the United Nations Charter, according to a statement from Guyana’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Mohabir Anil Nandlall after the hearings ended.
“We have heard the statements of Venezuela’s representatives … that they do not accept the ICJ’s jurisdiction and will not abide by its rulings. This would be a breach of its most solemn obligations under the United Nations Charter,” Nandlall said.
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The case centers on the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award that established the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela. Caracas has long rejected the award and claims ownership of the Essequibo region, which makes up about two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is rich in natural resources.
“Guyana is more confident than ever… that the Court will uphold the legal validity of the unanimous Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899.”
The controversy intensified after Guyana emerged as a major oil producer following ExxonMobil’s 2015 offshore Liza oil discovery. Venezuela has continued to press its claim over the Essequibo aggressively, despite the ICJ in 2020 ruling that it had jurisdiction to hear the case.
Guyana initiated proceedings at the ICJ in 2018 after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided the controversy should be settled by the court, following decades of unsuccessful diplomatic efforts under the 1966 Geneva Agreement.
Nandlall said the conclusion of the hearings marked “a triumph for the rule of law and the rules-based international order,” arguing that disputes between states “must never be resolved by threat or use of military force.”
The ICJ’s ruling is expected in the coming months.
