Venezuela announced plans on Tuesday to ship oil to Portugal in exchange for food products and other goods that have been running short in the South American country.
Venezuela, Latin America’s largest oil producer, will send as many as 30,000 barrels of crude a day to Portugal by later this year, President Hugo Chavez told reporters after meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
That amount equals less than 1 percent of Venezuela’s average daily oil output last year, but is still worth US$1 billion at today’s prices, Chavez said. He said he hoped Portugal would repay the full amount “with technology, food, and other goods and services” rather than cash.
Venezuela has suffered sporadic food shortages in recent years, with basic products including milk, sugar and eggs sometimes hard to find. Given those shortages, Venezuela agreed to provide crude to GALP Energia, Portugal’s state-controlled energy company, in exchange for soy oil, pasta and 5,000 tonnes) of powdered milk from three different Portuguese producers.
The deal is one of 14 accords signed on Tuesday by the two nations’ leaders. Others call for Venezuela and Portugal to work together to exploit natural gas reserves off Venezuela’s coast and to certify oil deposits in Venezuela’s eastern Orinoco River basin.
Meanwhile, Germany’s criticism of Chavez threatens bilateral relations, Caracas said on Tuesday, after the president called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a political descendant of Adolf Hitler.
The Foreign Ministry struck out at comments made by Merkel last week in which she said Chavez, an outspoken critic of capitalism, did not speak for Latin America.
“Her statements do not only disturb bilateral relations, but also cast doubts on the intention of the German government to strengthen friendly ties with all Latin America and Caribbean countries,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry on Tuesday accused Germany of “meddling” and said Venezuela was not a “factor of disturbance” in Latin America, Europe or the world.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not