Grenada MP calls on OECS to discuss maritime boundaries with Venezuela

Grenada MP calls on OECS to discuss maritime boundaries with Venezuela

February 12, 2008
Caribbean Net News

ST GEORGE’S Grenada: Grenadian Member of Parliament Nazim Burke, the opposition National Democratic Congress shadow Minister, says it's in the interest of OECS countries to work together as a group to discuss the delimitation of maritime boundaries with Venezuela.

Possible oil and gas finds in the waters off Grenada and other countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States could provide a major boost for their small economies.

“I think where you have several countries sitting together in an archipelago and all having the potential within their respective economic zones, all having the potential to have oil, gas or natural marine reserves; it is in the interest of those countries especially because they do not have the experience of negotiating maritime boundaries, it is in their interest to pull there resources together and come up with the best deals for those countries as a group,” said Burke.

Burke, the MP for St George North East, is however critical of what he describes as the ruling New National Party's many years of flirting with the idea of entering into negotiations with Trinidad and Venezuela for the purposes of determining and delimiting Grenada's maritime boundaries.

According to Burke, the Grenada government has in the past said that would have entered into negotiations with Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela for the purposes of determining and delimiting boundaries.

“That has not happened; and frankly what it has done has constrained our own capacity to explore the prospects for oil and gas in our waters," he said.

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