Guyana President Irfaan said the government expects the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule in the case concerning the 1899 Arbitral Award by year end.
The President made the comment on Friday at a press conference in Georgetown, following the conclusion of the final oral hearings at the court during the period May 4-11, 2026.
The case is expected to settle a territorial controversy in which Venezuela claims the Essequibo region, which constitutes two-thirds of Guyana’s territory.
The United Nations’ top judicial body has received written and oral pleadings from Guyana and Venezuela over the years. Despite Venezuela’s continued protests against the court’s jurisdiction to settle the matter, the ICJ has ruled that the case is admissible and that it has the jurisdiction to determine the questions therein.
Guyana expects the court to affirm that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which settled the land border between the two countries, is valid.
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.
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.
