President Irfaan Ali of Guyana told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that his country expects Venezuela to respect the imminent ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the two states' long-running border dispute, rejecting Caracas's renewed appeal for a negotiated settlement.

The exchange unfolded during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, addressing the assembly before Ali, called for direct talks between the neighbouring states, framing her appeal at what she described as the "very headquarters of international law." Rodríguez, wearing a brooch depicting the Essequibo region as part of Venezuela's map, said Caracas wished to reaffirm its claim over the territory, which covers roughly the western two-thirds of Guyana's 83,000 square miles.

"Here, I appeal to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to resolve the issue and to return to negotiations, as stipulated by the Geneva Agreement," Rodríguez said. "Agreements which last the longest are those that emerge from bilateral negotiations. They last longer and function better than those imposed by external bodies."

Guyana's Position

President Ali gave that proposal short shrift. He told the assembly that Guyana has consistently advanced the peaceful settlement of the controversy concerning its border with Venezuela, and he grounded his country's position in the 1899 Arbitral Award.

"Despite the historical truth clearly outlined in the Arbitral Award of 1899 that determined the full, perfect, and final settlement of our border with Venezuela, we endured long and repeated provocations and aggression," Ali said.

Guyana filed the case at the ICJ in 2018, seeking affirmation that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award establishing the land boundary between the two countries is legally valid. Venezuela had accepted the award for more than 60 years before declaring it null in 1962 and reviving its territorial claim.

Ali reminded the assembly of the procedural history. "The matter was referred to the International Court of Justice by the Secretary-General, acting pursuant to the Geneva Agreement, and the Court twice pronounced on its jurisdiction to hear the matter," he said.

Procedural Background

The dispute proceeds under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which sets out mechanisms for peaceful settlement. After bilateral efforts failed — including a mixed commission and decades of attempts under the good offices of the UN Secretary-General — the UN Secretary-General referred the matter to the ICJ. The court has twice ruled on its own jurisdiction to hear the case.

Hearings in the merits phase concluded in May 2026, according to Ali, and a ruling on the validity of the 1899 award is now expected.

"In full respect for international law, Guyana participated and encouraged Venezuela to participate in the proceedings of the ICJ. Now that we have both participated in the hearings, which were completed in May 2026, we urge Venezuela to abide by the forthcoming ruling in accordance with their obligation under the UN Charter, as Guyana will do," the president said.

"We look forward to a new era of neighbourly relations in the interests of our peoples, the development of our countries, and the stability and prosperity of our region," Ali added.

The Territory at Stake

The contested Essequibo region spans approximately 61,600 square miles, bordered by the Essequibo River to the east and Venezuela to the west. It is resource-rich terrain. Venezuela has previously linked Guyana's decision to go to court with the major offshore oil discoveries made in 2015, alleging that Georgetown abandoned negotiations after reserves were found offshore in territory internationally recognised as Guyanese.

What the Ruling Will Decide

For practitioners, the stakes are straightforward. The ICJ will determine whether the 1899 Arbitral Award validly settled the land boundary — a question Guyana says was settled definitively more than six decades before Venezuela repudiated it. A ruling upholding the award would confirm Guyana's sovereignty over the Essequibo and remove the principal legal cloud over the exploitation of offshore resources adjacent to the disputed area. Venezuela's public posture at the UNGA signals that it may resist compliance, setting up a potential test of the binding force of ICJ judgments under the UN Charter and the Security Council's role in enforcement under Article 94.

Ali's Wider Address

Beyond the border dispute, Ali's speech ranged across the global agenda. He said the world "does not need more sophisticated instruments of destruction" but rather "a more sophisticated capacity for peace."

He renewed Guyana's call for a just and lasting solution in the Middle East, one recognising "the Palestinian people's legitimate right to self-determination and to secure homeland of their own," reiterating Georgetown's support for a two-state solution. He also called for an end to the wars in Ukraine and Sudan and for a peaceful, people-centred and development-focused solution for Cuba, echoing the Caribbean Community's offer to play a meaningful role in that process.

On Haiti, where criminal gangs have sought to topple the government since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Ali said resolving the country's multidimensional challenges "remains central to achieving democracy, stability, peace, and prosperity for the Haitian people," adding that Haiti's future "must be Haitian-led and Haitian-owned."

Ali also pressed for UN institutional reform, noting that this year's assembly theme — "restoring trust, managing transformation, a United Nations that delivers for all" — acknowledges the need for the organisation to be fit for purpose. He catalogued the crises confronting the international community, from climate catastrophe and food insecurity to armed conflict and "a weakening of multilateralism itself."

"If history has taught us anything, it is that even when the world seemed to stand at a precipice, humanity has never been entirely without the means to draw it back from the brink," Ali said. "It has been our inventiveness, our courage, and above all, our willingness to act together that have opened a path where none seemed to exist."