When 7News was in The Hague, Netherlands in November of last year - Ambassador to the European Union, Dylan Vernon underscored the importance of the ACP as a means of keeping the pressure on Guatemalans:..,.
H.E. Dylan Vernon, Belizean Ambassador to EU
"In the case of where I am in Europe, the African Caribbean and Pacific groups of states, we have been getting support from these groups to pressure Guatemala to agree to the protocol for the use of the Sarstoon River. And this is important for several reasons, 1) we are letting the world know that there was a commitment made that is not being honoured by Guatemala to have a protocol on how we use the Sarstoon. 2) we want to get away from any perception that Guatemala is trying to establish facts on the ground and most importantly we can use these resolutions that support Belize's position that we must have a protocol on the Sarstoon to lobby our friends and ally's member states of the European Union and others and eventually also use them to show that Belize has made every effort it can to get the Guatemalans to agree to a protocol. ACP resolutions and declarations give us basically a high moral standing in the world. We have the solidarity of the all these nations and we use this again when we talk to our friends in terms of urging for example, the European Union to provide support to the OAS office in the adjacency zone. So these are very important things for Belize to be doing in the context of our foreign missions."
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