Guyanese Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the British warship, HMS Trent, en route to Guyana is by no means geared at taking offensive action against neighbouring Venezuela.
The two countries recently became signatories to a peace-keeping agreement.
Jagdeo’s clarification comes amid concerns raised by the Nicolas Maduro administration over the vessel’s presence, as the two South American countries await a ruling of the World Court regarding ownership of an area under Guyana’s control for well over a century.
“We don’t have any plan to take offensive action against Venezuela,” the Vice President said during a press engagement on Thursday. He added that the vessel will be conducting routine patrol exercises when it arrives.
“It has been long planned and part of building a defensive capability in Guyana, ” Jagdeo said, stressing that the vessel will not be here to ” fight wars” but to police Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“Nothing that we do or have done is threatening Venezuela,” Jagdeo emphasised, confirming that Guyana has not turned away the vessel.
In a recent BBC article, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed HMS Trent would take part in joint exercises after Christmas.
Further, the Royal Navy said that HMS Trent usually operates in the Mediterranean and off Africa’s west coast as part of a long-term security mission, but is heading for the Caribbean to clamp down on drugs runners.
The patrol ship arrives in the region to replace destroyer HMS Dauntless, which seized more than £200m worth of cocaine during a highly fruitful hurricane season deployment.
