Earlier this week, we told you about a new twist in the Belize versus Honduras case at the International Court of Justice; Guatemala wants in. The ICJ has agreed to hear Guatemala’s application to intervene, and those oral proceedings are set for November twenty-fourth. Now, during a recent trip to the U.S., Belize’s Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca met with his Guatemalan counterpart. The two discussed a range of issues, including, of course, the long-standing border dispute that continues to shape regional diplomacy.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“We started out the two-day meeting, visit, meeting with the foreign minister of Guatemala. That was a bilateral meeting. We discussed the ICJ process and the challenges we continue to face on the border in the Sarstoon and discuss generally Belize Guatemala relations in terms of trade, investment, other opportunities. I think that was a very productive meeting. Later in the day we had a wider meeting, Belize/ Guatemala under the auspices of the OAS. We had a meeting with the group of friends, where Belize and Guatemala made statements to our group of friends and we heard from them about their continued support for the process, the ICJ process so that was very good. All our group of friends were there and they reaffirmed their commitment to Belize and Guatemala though this process as along as it takes and supporting the work of the OAS. Had a very good meeting with the new secretary general of the OAS. We discussed the continued work of the OAS in the adjacency zone. We also discussed regional and hemispheric issues including the situation in Haiti. We talked about reform at the OAS and many different issued. That was very good meeting, I think.”
