– insists issue would not strain neighbourly relationsBy Leonard GildarieThe Guyana government yesterday insisted that Venezuela was made aware since May 13, 2009, of this country’s intentions to extend its continental shelf by 150 nautical miles.The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement came one day after the Venezuelan government issued one of its own, criticizing the move by Guyana.Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-BirkettVenezuela has a claim on a large portion of Essequibo – the largest of three counties – a development which has been simmering for a number of years now.The two countries have even now developed ties with a multi-million-dollar oil agreement in which Guyana buys oil at a concessionary rate and sells rice and paddy in a deal brokered by President Bharrat Jagdeo and his counterpart, Hugo Chavez.According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, since May 13, “Guyana under cover of a Note Verbale provided the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with a copy of the Preliminary Information and Data which Guyana submitted to the Secretary General of the United Nations.”That document, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said, constitutes the Executive Summary of Guyana’s full submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf except for the fact that it has adjusted coordinates for the outer limits of the extended continental shelf based on additional seismic data that were obtained after May 2009.The extension of the continental shelf, if successful would allow Guyana to harvest any resources, including seafoods and oil, that would fall within that area.Venezuela is arguing that the move to extend Guyana’s continental shelf would jeopardize its claim on Essequibo. But Guyana yesterday made it clear that it was pursuing its own interests and this could in no way do so.NO THREAT“The Government of Guyana wishes to state that as was made pellucid in Guyana’s Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf,NCAA Hockey Jerseys, Guyana’s submission of information and data pursuant to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is without prejudice to any future maritime delimitation exercise with neighbouring States.”The Communique from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela recognizes that fact, since it declares that the Submission of the Republic of Guyana does not prejudge eventual maritime delimitation between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Ministry said in its statement.“The Government of Guyana notes that the Good Offices Process of the United Nations Secretary General has a clear mandate as stated in the Geneva Agreement of 1966. That Process therefore relates exclusively to the resolution of the controversy that has arisen from the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899, that definitively delimited the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela, is null and void.”The Ministry stressed that the Government of Guyana values the relations that have developed between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the recent past, and it was in that context that Guyana shared with that State, the Preliminary Data and Information it provided to the Secretary General of the United Nations in May 2009 and the Executive Summary of the full Submission in September 2011.“The Government of Guyana reiterates its interest in the development of continued harmonious relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and anticipates that since the Submission of Guyana to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is without prejudice to future maritime delimitation exercises with neighbouring States, whether within or beyond 200 nautical miles, this issue would not be allowed to adversely affect the exceptionally good relations that exist between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today.”VENEZUELA ANGRYVenezuelan newspaper, Latin America Herald Tribune yesterday carried this map depicting parts of Guyana as Venezuela’s.On Monday, Venezuela’s eluniversal.com online news reported that the government there was angered that Guyana has moved to extend its 200-nautical mile continental shelf by another 150 nautical miles.“The Bolivarian Government,Air Max 97 Silver, acting responsibly, has started to assess such an irregular situation to give a right answer under International Law,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, and it is taking the necessary action to preserve the law in its own right with regard to the extent of its maritime front,” a report on the eluniversal.com quoted the Venezuelan government as saying.According to the news report – there were two of them- the Venezuelan government promised to “continue advocating the country’s pivotal interests in the firmest manner by means of inte