Guatemalan Foreign Minister Presents Approved Bilateral Agreements

Carlos Raul Morales

Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales told the media that for both countries to move forward, the bilateral agenda between the two must be separate from the territorial dispute. This strategy resulted in the signing of a number of agreements at the SICA summit last December in Placencia. Nine of these have now gone through the process in Guatemala and copies were handed over to the Elrington.

Carlos Raul Morales, Foreign Minister of Guatemala

“You know that last December we completed a process of negotiation that led to the signing of the thirteen bilateral agreements. Interesting but in reviewing our history we find that with Belize since it obtained its independence we’ve only had two agreements: the partial scope agreement and the measures to contrast trust for the amendment. But we didn’t have agreements in the bilateral relations that would make it possible for us to delve into relations. When there is a good will to do things you do them. I want to take this opportunity to present to the Foreign minister at this time a formal written notification that Guatemala has complied with nine of thirteen agreements. Guatemala has met the internal legal agreements of nine out of the thirteen agreements and therefore we are only pending the notification from Belize for these agreements to come into force as soon as possible.”

Wilfred Elrington

Wilfred Elrington, Foreign Minister of Belize

“We’ve been doing most of them informally, you know we just formalizing them no to give them more support. Even when we do all what we need to do to conclude the formal process, there is not going to be any significant difference in operations because they are already being done on a daily basis.”

Alexis Rosado

Alexis Rosado, Belize’s Ambassador to Guatemala

“Except that in the past, because of the dispute, we have not been able to engage in this type of formal collaboration. So in that sense it is new, that yes we have had informal cooperation and so forth but we have been prevented from going further than just the very basis. And I think these agreements enhance that possibility.”

News Five was the only media house from Belize in Guatemala and we’ll have more on the protocol signing later this week.