Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has ordered more than 5,600 military personnel to participate in “defensive” exercises, after the UK deployed a warship to waters off the coast of Guyana in a show of support for the former British colony. Maduro said he was launching an action “of a defensive nature in response to the provocation and threat of the UK against peace and the sovereignty of our country”. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Sunday announced that it would send the patrol vessel HMS Trent to Guyana, amid a simmering territorial dispute that began when Maduro renewed Venezuela’s claim to the oil-rich Essequibo region. The 62,000 sq mile (160,000 sq km) Essequibo region is generally recognised as part of Guyana but, in recent years, Venezuela has revived its claim to the territory and offshore areas after major oil and gas discoveries. Tensions rose sharply this month after voters in a Venezuelan referendum backed a move to make the Essequibo area a new Venezuelan state and rejected the jurisdiction of the international court of justice (ICJ), which is hearing the case on the border dispute. Guyana and Venezuela agreed earlier this month to avoid the use of force and resist increasing tensions. Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Trent is visiting Guyana, a British ally and former colony, as part of a series of engagements in the region, the MoD said, without referring to Venezuela or the border dispute. “It is the breaking of the spirit of dialogue, diplomacy and peace of the agreements,” Maduro said on Thursday. He said the deployment was “practically a military threat from London”. Maduro has ordered “the activation of a joint defensive action of the Bolivarian national armed forces” off the coast of Essequibo, he said in a state televised broadcast, but did not give more information. “We believe in diplomacy, in dialogue, in peace,” said Maduro. “But no one should threaten Venezuela, no one should mess with Venezuela. We are men of peace, we are a people of peace, but we are warriors and this threat is unacceptable for any sovereign country,” he said. “The threat of the decadent, rotten, ex-empire of the United Kingdom is unacceptable.” Military leaders in Venezuela’s east said during the broadcast that 5,600 uniformed personnel were ready for the operation. In a statement, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said the country “reserves all actions, within the framework of the constitution and international law, to defend its maritime and territorial integrity”. A UK foreign minister, David Rutley, visited Guyana earlier this month and reiterated that its territorial integrity should be respected. “The border issue has been settled for more than 120 years … We welcome the recent agreement by Venezuela … to refrain from the use of force and any further escalation.”