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Venezuela president plans to meet with Guyanese counterpart at UN amid border conflict

Associated Press
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David Arthur Granger, President of Guyana, addresses the 2015 Sustainable Development Summit, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (The Associated Press)

President of Guyana David Arthur Granger addresses the Sustainable Development Summit, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (The Associated Press)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he plans to meet with Guyanese President David Granger in New York to discuss a border dispute between the two South American neighbors.

Maduro is now in New York and says the meeting will take place in the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, with the support of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The U.N. did not immediately comment on the proposed meeting.

Venezuela has long claimed a jungle area known as the Essequibo that comprises about 40 percent of Guyana's territory. The socialist country reasserted those claims this year after a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. announced a significant oil discovery off the coast of Guyana.

Since then, the two sides have scaled back on their shared commerce.