Russia and Venezuela’s leaders on Wednesday vowed closer cooperation to establish what they called a “multi-polar” world, ahead of naval exercises seen as sending a defiant signal to the US.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev defended Russia’s arms sales to Venezuela — criticized by the US and Colombia as potentially destabilizing — and said military cooperation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would continue.
Russian military cooperation with Venezuela “is not a market relationship or aimed at any other state but is based on partnership ... It should strengthen multi-polarity in the world including in South America and Latin America,” Medvedev said.
“We will develop our military cooperation,” he said.
Chavez said US “hegemony” was the source of global “catastrophes” after he greeted Medvedev at a ceremony featuring scarlet-clad soldiers carrying spears, in a courtyard decorated with palm trees, fountains and statues of ancient gods and dolphins.
“We should fight to make a world of catastrophes caused by hegemony and unilateralism a thing of the past,” said Chavez, going on to denounce what he called the “dictatorship of the dollar” and announcing efforts to move away from dollar transactions in trade with Russia.
On the commercial front the two countries signed a cooperation agreement in the civilian atomic energy sector.
The head of Russian atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said Venezuela had the right to peaceful nuclear energy and had given no cause for “questions” about its fitness for nuclear energy.
Officials also signed an agreement on cooperation in the fossil fuel sector, aimed at stepping up existing exploration projects in Venezuela by companies such as Gazprom.
Medvedev and Chavez went on to dine with leaders of several South and Central American countries, some of which have formed an economic group meant to counter-balance US influence.
Medvedev was to visit Russian warships yesterday that arrived in Venezuela earlier this week to carry out exercises in the Caribbean Sea, close to US waters.
Medvedev’s visit was part of a tour aimed at revitalizing Cold War-era ties with left-leaning countries of Latin America and was seen as aimed at rebuffing US moves in formally communist parts of Europe such as planned missile defense facilities.
Medvedev earlier visited Brazil, which announced it would buy 12 attack helicopters from Russia.
The arrival in Venezuela of the Russian warships led by a nuclear-powered cruiser has been portrayed by Russian media as mirroring US deployments in the Black Sea in support of Moscow’s adversary, Georgia.
Russian officials have repeatedly denied the exercises are aimed at “third countries” and Venezuela’s president rejected talk of provocation on Monday, describing the exercises as an exchange between “free, sovereign countries.”
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the arrival of Russian ships could hardly reflect a change in the regional power balance.
“A few Russian ships is not going to change the balance of power,” she said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS