Prime Minister Said Musa Meets Prime Minister Tony Blair

17 June, 2000 - Belmopan
Prime Minister Said Musa today held a meeting with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair at #10 Downing Street, where they discussed how
Britain can be more helpful to Belize in maintaining its sovereignty and
territorial integrity in the face of the unfounded revived Guatemalan
claim.

Mr. Musa was a special guest of Tony Blair in the Prime Minister's
Box this morning at the Queen's Birthday parade. Also in the box
was new Secretary General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon, with whom Musa has had extensive meetings on the same subject while in London.

Musa told Blair that Belize was happy with the continued presence of the
British training unit in Belize, and indeed would welcome its expansion.
He also expressed Belize's gratitude for the U.K.'s continued support of our defence capability through strategies to maintain the effectiveness of the Belize Defence Force, and asked that the assistance be stepped up.

The Belizean Prime Minister explained something about the internal
political situation in Guatemala, and the fact that the General Ríos
Montt was the President of their Congress and a real power in Guatemala.
He also indicated that some Guatemalan officials were misreading the
attempts by Britain to be diplomatically useful to both sides, wrongly
concluding that the British were no longer fully backing Belize's
position. In this context, the reassurances received from Secretary of
State Robin Cook and other officials have been extremely helpful.
Clearly there is no weakening of Britain's strong commitment to
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Belize.

Prime Minister Blair expressed great interest in Mr. Musa's
statements, and promised to have an early consultation with Robin Cook
on the matter. He also told Mr. Musa that the military had reported that
they greatly value the use of Belize as a training ground, and that they
consider the Belize facility to be very useful.

Prime Minister Musa also took the opportunity to speak to Defence
Secretary Geoffrey Hoon and urged him never to forget Belize. Mr. Hoon
said he gathered that the British troops were very happy in Belize, and
Mr. Musa repeated his assurances that they are most welcome and that
Britain is free to increase and expand their presence.

The Prime Minister will hold more meetings in London tomorrow before
flying on to Rome on Sunday night.