Venezuela became a full member of Mercosur at a summit of the South American regional trading bloc on Friday, while Bolivia took a first step toward joining.
Host country Brazil hailed Venezuela’s entry, which marked the group’s first enlargement since Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay founded it in 1991.
However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did not attend. The firebrand leftist leader appeared in public for the first time in three weeks on Friday as he returned home from Cuba after his latest cancer-related medical treatment.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hailed the decision by Bolivia, a Mercosur associate member along with Ecuador, to take the first step toward full membership.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said his country would decide early next year on whether to seek full membership amid concern about the impact integration might have on its dollar-based economy.
With the admission of Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, the bloc is now an energy and agricultural giant with a GDP of US$3.3 trillion (83 percent of that of South America) and a population of 275 million.
Bolivia and Ecuador would boost Mercosur’s population to nearly 300 million.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica meanwhile said the summit would mull whether to jump-start stalled negotiations on a free trade agreement with the EU.
Negotiations have stumbled over differences on agriculture — notably Europe’s subsidies to its farmers, which undermine South America’s efforts to sell its own products.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, whose country is embroiled in a WTO dispute with the EU and the US, urged Mercosur to negotiate with Europe “as an equal.”
She accused the Europeans of hypocrisy for alleging Argentine protectionism while they themselves, she said, have been practicing it for decades.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS