Building a binational border.

PositionOAS - Honduras, Nicaragua - Brief Article

THE GOVERNMENTS of Honduras and Nicaragua have established the political framework for a binational border development plan that will promote education, social and productive development, environmental conservation, and the economic integration of the border area.

Honduran foreign minister Roberto Flores Bermudez and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, signed an agreement outlining the plan's basic objectives during a ceremony in December at OAS headquarters.

The ceremony also marked the conclusion of a two-year process in which the OAS helped the two countries negotiate a series of agreements and confidence-building measures to reduce tensions and maintain peace. Honduras and Nicaragua have a territorial dispute before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said the commitment of both governments to settle their differences peacefully and the support of the international community had helped transform a crisis situation into today's climate of "calm, respect, and confidence."

In their remarks, the foreign ministers thanked the OAS for its role in helping to reduce tensions and expressed hope for a stronger relationship between the two countries in the future. Both countries inaugurated new presidents earlier this year.

The Secretary General noted that several countries, both member states and permanent observers, had supported the Honduras-Nicaragua mission through contributions to the OAS Fund for Peace. The contributors included Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the United States.

Gaviria also praised the "professionalism and dedication" of Ambassador Luigi Einaudi, who headed the mission first as a special representative, then as OAS assistant secretary general.

Einaudi had worked with the two countries since December 1999 to...

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