UN calls Guyana and Venezuela for border talks

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana’s foreign minister says the United Nations has summoned foreign ministry delegations from Guyana and Venezuela to discuss the decades-old border row between the two nations.

Carl Greenidge says the two days of talks ending late Sunday have been organized by special envoy Dag Halvor Nylander of Norway, who is trying to mediate a solution to the dispute between the oil- and gas-rich neighbours. Venezuela claims about 40 per cent of the territory governed by Guyana. There’s been little recent sign of progress.

U.N. officials have said they’ll refer the issue to the International Court of Justice if no deal is reached by the year’s end unless both sides ask them not to.