Nicaragua, Honduras Sign Agreement to Ease Border DisputeNicaragua and Honduras signed a new agreement under the mediation of the Organization of American States (OAS) to ease their border dispute, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said Saturday.The document was signed Friday in Washington by Nicaraguan Vice Foreign Minister Bertha Marina Arguello and her Honduran counterpart, Jose Tomas Arita, before the OAS mediator from the United States, Luigi Einaudi. The document is aimed at promoting confidence and security between the two sides and establishing mechanisms of observation and international vigilance. Under the agreement, the two countries will conduct at least four combined patrols every year on the Caribbean Sea as of last Friday, freeze the numbers of their troops on the border and exchange information on their military positions. Other commitments include parallel border patrolling, informing the OAS of arms import and export and exchange of views on bilateral issues. Tensions mounted between the two countries after Honduras ratified a border treaty with Colombia in November 1999. According to the Nicaraguan government, this treaty takes away from it 130, 000 square kilometers of territorial sea and continental shelf in the Caribbean Sea. |
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