Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that he was interested in accepting Russia’s offer of help in developing a civilian nuclear power program.
“We certainly are interested in developing nuclear energy, for peaceful ends of course — for medical purposes and to generate electricity,” he said.
“Brazil has various nuclear reactors, as does Argentina,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
“We will have ours as well,” he said upon his return from a tour in China and Russia.
His remarks followed comments from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday that Russia was “ready to consider the possibility” of nuclear energy cooperation with Caracas.
Moscow and Caracas have boosted ties in recent weeks following sharp US criticism of Russia’s incursion into Georgia, with Moscow dispatching long-range bombers and warships to Venezuela for exercises near US waters.
During his global tour, Chavez forged key military and energy cooperation deals that analysts said seemed likely to put him on dangerous footing with the US.
Russia’s energy ministry announced that the two countries would also form a consortium to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas projects in the South American country.
Venezuela is the world’s ninth biggest producer of oil, 2004 US government figures for 2004 show, and is a major supplier to the US.
But Venezuela’s extensive gas reserves are believed to be underdeveloped, with all of the 30 billion cubic meters that Venezuela produces every year used domestically.
Russia is the second biggest oil exporter in the world and controls a quarter of global reserves of natural gas.
Chavez last week also visited France, Cuba and Portugal, but said the Russian leg of his world tour was particularly fruitful, especially his talks with Putin, with whom he said he forged “a profound friendship.”
“I have to thank Putin for his courage in supporting Venezuela, as well as [Chinese President] Hu Jintao [胡錦濤], for not yielding to pressure from anyone,” he said, in an apparent reference to the US.
Chavez has said recently that he has increased ties with Russia as a counter-balance to US power and alluded to that goal again on Sunday.
“The Russian fleet has already departed ... and should arrive in Venezuela at the end of November for maneuvers to increase our defense capability,” he said on Sunday.
“We are not going to invade anyone, or engage in acts of aggression toward anyone,” the Venezuelan leader said.
“But no one should mistake our intention — we are prepared to do everything necessary to defend Venezuelan sovereignty,” Chavez said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in