MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK sends HMS Trent in support of Guyana

HMS Trent, similar River class as HMS Forth, Falklands patrol vessel, is scheduled to take part in joint exercises with Guyana after Christmas.

The Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel HMS Trent has been dispatched to Guyana in a show of British support for the Commonwealth nation. Guyana is suffering threats of invasion and land grabbing by neighboring Venezuela which claims some two-thirds of the former British colony's territory.

HMS Trent, similar River class as HMS Forth, Falklands patrol vessel, is scheduled to take part in joint exercises with Guyana after Christmas.

A UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) spokesperson said: “HMS Trent will visit regional ally and Commonwealth partner Guyana later this month as part of a series of engagements in the region during her Atlantic and Caribbean patrol task deployment.”

Tension over the disputed border region of Esequibo has raised worries about a military conflict, with Venezuela insisting Essequibo was part of its territory during the Spanish colonial period and arguing a 1966 Geneva agreement with Britain and then-British Guiana, now Guyana, nullified a border drawn in 1899 by international arbitrators.

The dispute was reignited with the discovery of offshore oil in Guyana and escalated when authoritarian Venezuela voted in a referendum on December 3 to claim two-thirds of its smaller neighbor. The Caribbean organization Caricom and South American group Celac, with the mediation of Brazil have so far managed to cool Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro aggressive speech.

The offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent was in Barbados and is now heading to Guyana for activities which will be carried out at sea. Nevertheless the OPV is not expected to dock in Georgetown, Guyana's capital. The US has also promised Guyana air support to help guard the Esequibo region.

Earlier this month, Foreign Office minister for the Americas, Caribbean and Overseas Territories David Rutley visited Guyana.

“The border issue has been settled for over 120 years. Sovereign borders must be respected wherever they are in the world,” he said. Mr. Rutley said Venezuela had promised to refrain from the use of force and any further escalation in the dispute.

He added that the UK would work internationally “to ensure the territorial integrity of Guyana is upheld”.

With the discovery of offshore oil, at ExxonMobil's Stabroek Block lease area, Guyana once among the poorest nations in South America, has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world.