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Alejandro Giammattei, the new Guatemalan president, was sworn in last Tuesday - and there are some encouraging signs coming out of Guatemala City.  

Giammattei has indicated that he wants to restore the bilateral relationship between the neighboring countries, mainly in commerce and tourism.  And he says, he wants to meet with Prime Minister, Dean Barrow. 

The Prensa Libre quotes him as saying, "We are very interested in getting along with everyone, they are neighbors,".

And today Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington told us that we should all be rejoicing because a meeting between President and Prime Minister is on the horizon:

Hon.Wilfred Elrington - Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"I heard the President on TV saying as much, that in fact wanted to come and visit and meet with the Prime Minister he said and that he thought that this is the time for us to move ahead now that the case is at the court for us to move ahead with dealing with our economic and trade matters. In my view, that could not have been better news than that because you see, no country can survive without robust trade, commerce investment. Guatemala is a huge market, so is Mexico and common sense would dictate that we would want to avail ourselves of every opportunity to increase our trade between these 2 countries. It also conduces to the strengthening of the cordial relationship which we have, so I can see tremendous benefits being derived from enhanced trade, investment and bilateral relations with Guatemala, that's very good news for us and I think we should all be rejoicing about it."

Reporter
"They're saying that in order for us to do trade with Guatemala, they should drop the claim against Belize, they say that is the only way we should trade with Guatemala. What do you say about that?"

Hon.Wilfred Elrington
"You can't stop people from their views but it doesn't make any sense to me but you can't stop people from their views. Actually, if you look at the world stage, you have a tense relationship between China and Taiwan but nobody do move investment in China than Taiwan and vice versa. Now I don't think they are much more sophisticated than us where they can see beyond dispute and understand that it is imperative they are to protect their people and enhance the standard of living that they should trade. People here in Belize regretfully may not be able to at this time, not be seeing as far as we are seeing because of the emotionalism that is involved with this claim but I will tell you, if you go to Cayo on any day, every minute you see people from Cayo going across to Melchor, coming back, going across, that's trade, that's investment, that has been going on from time, it will never stop. People go and trade, that's how you survive, so those who are making those statements are, I would suggest not the people whom we should listen to, we should listen to the people who would have responsibility to pay the bills. People who have to pay their bills, pay for the nurses, pay for the doctors, pay for the school teachers, understand that unless you do robust trade and investment, you will not be able to pay for those services and life in Belize is going to become nasty, brutish and short. So, we have to be mature, we have got to prescient, we have got to understand that the reason why we need to resolve this matter, is because we need to enhance our relationship but in terms of security and from the terms of trade and investment and to have the president saying publicly that we wants to get on with this agenda, something we have been advocating all along and I've been working with some measure of success is clearly good news for all us who are in government and who have leadership responsibility in the country."

Prensa Libre says, Giammattei's proposal is that the meeting be held on Sunday, January 26, in Belmopan, Belizean capital, or in the Adjacency Zone.

After a meeting with the secretary General of the OAS,  Giammattei is quoted as saying that he wants to, quote, "speak with the government of Belize so that we can, leave aside the issue of the Court  of International Justice, beginning to reestablish the links that we may have in trade and tourism. If there are many things that unite us more than fighting," end quote.