Guyana–Suriname border

A river on one side

Guyana and Suriname agree that the whole of the Corentyne, their border river, is under Suriname’s sovereignty.^[1] In 1936 a three-mile territorial sea boundary was fixed along a 10° bearing from the river mouth, for the sake of the channel into the Corentyne.^[2]

Offshore, Suriname argued for extending the 10° line all the way to 200 miles, while Guyana held to an equidistance line running further north-east.^[2] In June 2000, CGX Resources, drilling under a Guyanese concession in the disputed waters, was ordered off by the Surinamese navy within 12 hours, with the warning that “the consequences will be yours”, and its vessels left.^[1]

The 2007 award

Guyana began proceedings under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in February 2004. Suriname objected that the case depended on a disputed land boundary terminus, but the five-member tribunal went ahead. On 17 September 2007 it kept a line giving access to the Corentyne’s western channel for the first three miles, bent it towards equidistance at 12 miles, and followed an unadjusted equidistance line beyond. It found that Suriname’s expulsion of the CGX rig “constituted a threat of the use of force” in breach of the Convention, the UN Charter and general international law.^[1]

Guyana’s president, Bharrat Jagdeo, told the nation that the award settled the boundary and let licensees return to Guyana’s side of the line, and that both countries were winners for having resolved the dispute peacefully.^[2]

“constituted a threat of the use of force in breach of the Convention, the UN Charter and general international law”^[1]