Belmopan - 29 March, 2006.
The third ministerial meeting under the Agreement on a Framework for Negotiations and Confidence Building Measures Between Belize and Guatemala was held in Guatemala City on 23 and 24 March 2006.

The Framework Agreement requires the Parties to identify the issues of fact and law that shall be the subject of negotiations, set out their respective positions and seek to resolve differences where possible. The Secretary General is empowered to determine at any time during the negotiations that it is not possible to arrive at an agreement on some of the issues, and recommend that the Parties submit those to an international tribunal, and the Parties agreed to submit that recommendation to the appropriate authorities of their respective countries.

You will recall that the first ministerial meeting was held in San Pedro, Ambergris, on 14 and 15 November 2005, when the Parties agreed on the procedures to be observed at these meetings and requested the Secretary General of the OAS to prepare a non-paper that will identify the positions of the two Parties in relation to the territorial differendum, based on the presentations already made to the OAS by the two governments, and to propose one of the areas of the dispute, that is, territorial, insular or maritime, to be the basis of discussions in the initial stage of the process.

The second ministerial meeting was held in Washington at the OAS Headquarters, where the Secretary General delivered the non-paper and proposed that the negotiations begin by addressing the maritime area of the dispute, that the OAS appoint an expert on the Law of the Sea to provide technical advise on specific issues related to the maritime area and that the government of Honduras be invited to participate in the negotiation process. Both Parties agreed to these proposals.

At the third ministerial meeting held last week, the first day was dedicated to the negotiations on the maritime area, and was attended by the Foreign Minister of Honduras as well as the Foreign Minister of Guatemala. The expert on the Law of the Sea, Dr. Paulillo, was also present.

After discussing how the negotiations could best proceed in an expeditious and productive manner, the Ministers decided to establish a technical group of representatives of the three countries who, following the instructions of their respective governments, and in accordance with the 7 September Agreement, will meet to discuss base lines, territorial waters, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf.

The first meeting of the group will be held in Belize on 20 and 21 April, and continue to meet as needed to forward a report to the fourth ministerial session, which was set for 19 and 20 May in Honduras.

On the second day of the meeting the delegations of Belize and Guatemala addressed the issues related to the operation of the Confidence Building measures, including the Joint Commission, and received a report from the OAS Office which, among other things, outlined the steps it was taking to ensure the orderly voluntary relocation of the Santa Rosa settlers. Following a presentation by the Belize delegation on the issue of trafficking of persons, the meeting agreed to include this subject in the agenda and to take all measures necessary to address this serious problem.

The next meeting of the Joint Commission, which is charged with designing cooperation projects between the two countries, will be held in Belize on 5 April 2006.