Features

Saint Lucia Signs Maritime Boundary Agreements With B’dos, SVG

PRESS RELEASE – LAST Thursday, Saint Lucia signed agreements with Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to delimit our maritime boundaries with those two States.

The signing took place during the Thirty-eighth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM held in St. George’s, Grenada from July 4-6.

Image: Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (l) and Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet sign an agreement on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Barbados and Saint Lucia.
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (l) and Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet sign an agreement on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Barbados and Saint Lucia.

These agreements are the result of negotiations held between Saint Lucia and Barbados in March 2016 and between Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in May 2017 to determine the maritime boundaries between the States. The Commonwealth Secretariat provided legal and technical advisory support to all negotiating parties.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which the three States are party, entitles them to each claim an Exclusive Economic Zone of up to 200 nautical miles. As a result of the fact that the countries are less than 400 nautical miles apart, it was necessary to delimit their maritime boundaries by applying the principle of equidistance.

The delegations held productive discussions in a spirit of cooperation and openness and agreed on draft text of a maritime boundary delimitation agreement. In all instances, the Heads of Delegation underscored the fact that the negotiations, as well as the draft agreement between the countries, bear testimony to the spirit of cordiality of the negotiations.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves (l) and Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet sign an agreement on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the two countries.

Prime Ministers signing on behalf of their respective countries were Saint Lucia’s Allen Chastanet, Barbados’ Freundel J. Stuart and St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Dr. Ralph Gonzalves.

In the 2016 negotiations, the Saint Lucia delegation was led by Ambassador June Soomer while the 2017 negotiations were led by Elma Gene Isaac, Ambassador of Saint Lucia to CARICOM and the OECS. The Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines delegations were led by Ambassador Robert Morris and Commander David Robin respectively.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Send this to a friend