Ruptly
"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) launched the first hearing in The Hague on Monday in the longstanding dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the Essequibo region, abundant in gold, diamonds, timber and close major offshore oil deposits. Following the hearing, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Eduardo Gil Pinto defended his country's 'historical' sovereignty over Esequiba, accusing the other side of 'false arguments' and 'attempts to manipulate' at a press conference. “Nothing that has been presented today contradicts Venezuela's rights. There has been no doubt cast on the fact that the territory of Guayana-Esequiba is Venezuelan," he stated. "No court, no multilateral international system can call this into question." The United Nations' top court will focus on the legitimacy of the 1899 Arbitral Award issued by a tribunal in Paris, which established the current border between the two neighbouring nations. Caracas maintains that negotiations with the UK, then Guyana's colonial master, under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, have nullified the 1899 ruling. Guyanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Hilton Todd described the case as of 'existential importance', stressing that Esequibo accounts for about two-thirds of Guyana's territory. "
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