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We asked him if he pressed his Guatemalan counterpart, Sandra Jovel on the Sarstoon Protocol:...

Reporter
"How is the meeting going and have you leaned over to your colleague Sandra Hovel and said remember what you promised us in Istanbul?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"You know I would not see her without doing that. I have raised that issue with them and they still having difficulty with compliance."

Reporter "Is the official position one of intransigence? Because I am saying that an honorable nation must live up to its commitments. It made a commitment before the OAS in Istanbul."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"You know about that commitment. I was there too. I was hoping and it is not that they have given up on the commitment. Its simply that they have not yet honored it to the extent that we want it honored. And the suggestion is that they have internal difficulties which makes it very difficult for them to be able to do that at this point in time. But there are other avenues that we are mutually embarking upon to make sure that we will remain relatively safe."

We wait to see what those, quote, "other avenues to ensure we remain relatively safe" are.

Today, Belize's position was bolstered by the ACP bloc of 79 states. At the conclusion of the 108th Session of ACP Council of Ministers, the gathering called on the Government of Guatemala to "urgently comply with its agreement to formulate confidence building measures for the Sarstoon River."