BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and Barbados will Friday sign a treaty on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between them that both countries say will reinforce the bonds of friendship and solidarity which they enjoy.
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and his SVG counterpart Ralph Gonsalves will sign the accord.
The delimitation of the maritime boundary between Barbados and SVG will create a zone of certainty within which both countries can pursue closer collaboration in maritime affairs.
Earlier this year, the recently accredited Barbados High Commissioner Robert Morris had initiated discussions with SVG to negotiate the maritime boundary treaty.
Gonsalves, who had accepted Morris’s Letter of Introduction, said then that Kingstown wanted to forge closer bilateral ties with Bridgetown through various areas of cooperation including: air transport, maritime affairs, agriculture, security and technical assistance.
I believe that allows Bajans to fish in the waters of SVG, they are already plundering our fishing grounds, you can be sure they will now wipe out our lobster stocks within two years.
Does the signing of this treaty have anything to do with fish or does it have to do with potential oil deposits? Barbados apparently signed oil exploration licenses with BHP Billiton earlier this year. I think our governments are too lazy to go to the trouble of signing maritime treaties over fishing rights. I think its more likely that this has something to do with potential oil finds. Such a treaty would avoid disputes such as what you see between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire where oil is at the heart of the dispute. Of course I’m quite sure that SVG has gotten the crappy end of the stick with this treaty.
There have been huge new oil deposits found in Bajan waters. Soon they will be rich beyond belief. So Gonsalves doesn’t mind surrendering our fishing rights and offering up our fishermen on the pyre of the dynasty, they are expendable. He is looking forward to a new cheap oil supply for when PetroCaribe folds.