Venezuela’s Chavez to visit oil-hungry China
CHINA: Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit
China this week, sealing agreements that may include expanded energy
cooperation and prompt wariness from the United States.
Chavez’s state visit from Sept. 18-19 will include meetings with
President Hu Jintao and agreements for cooperation in sports, judicial
affairs and other areas, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu
told a news conference on Tuesday.
Asked whether his visit would also bring the energy-hungry Asian
power expanded access to Venezuela’s plentiful oil, Jiang was
circumspect but did not rule out deals.
“Energy cooperation is a constitutive part of mutually beneficial
cooperation between China and Venezuela,” she said, adding that
Venezuela supplied only 4 percent of China’s oil imports.
“As to whether both sides will sign other agreements, they are
continuing consultations.”
Chavez has repeatedly said he wants to sell more oil to China and
Jiang said Chavez had been eager to visit “as early as possible”.
A self-styled revolutionary and florid critic of Washington, Chavez
wants to reduce his nation’s traditional reliance on energy markets in
the United States.
China’s big energy appetite and Communist Party government make it an
attractive alternative. Chavez has said he wants his country to ship
China 1 million barrels per day of oil by around 2011, about 13 percent
of its current oil demand.
Venezuela supplied China with 5.17 million tonnes of crude — just
177,000 bpd — in the first seven months of 2008, though this was a 94
percent increase on the same period last year.
In May, the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and the largest
Chinese oil and gas company PetroChina agreed to build a refinery in
China’s far southern Guangdong province.
China this year lent $4 billion to Venezuela, which the South
American country will repay in fuel, to create an investment fund for
development projects.
Washington has long been critical of Chavez’s leftwing politics at
home and his jousting with U.S. policy abroad.
But Jiang stressed that China did not want to be drawn into
diplomatic rivalry. She said Beijing’s ties with Caracas were “not
directed at any third party”.
BEIJING, Tuesday, Reuters |