Chavez
and Chirac affirm 'common vision', deeper ties
AFP/Patrick
Kovarik
French President Jacques Chirac
(L) welcomes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez before their meeting,
at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Chavez and Chirac agreed to further
develop their already close ties.
By
Marc Burleigh
AFP
PARIS
Petroleumworld.com 10 20 05
Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Jacques Chirac of France
met in Paris on Wednesday and agreed to further develop their
already close ties. The meeting, which officials of both countries
hailed, was expected to raise hackles in Washington, which is
particularly at odds with the leader of oil-rich Venezuela.
During their hour-long meeting "the two presidents examined
bilateral economic relations and in particular looked at issues
concerning, oil, energy, infrastructure and tourism," Chirac's
spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said.
"They decided to set up an organised mechanism for dialogue
to further develop economic and industrial cooperation between
the two countries," he added.
It was the third time the two had met this year.
French oil giant Total has a strong presence in Venezuela and
could double its output from 200,000 to 400,000 barrels a day
after several billion dollars were invested, Chavez said in Paris
in March.
Venezuela currently produces 3.1 million barrels of oil a day.
It is the world's fifth largest exporter and the only country
in Latin America to be a member of the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries cartel.
Half of its production goes to the US, providing 15 percent of
that country's consumption.
Relations between Caracas and Washington, however, are strained,
not least by Chavez's close ties to Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Chavez, while standing accused of having a destabilising influence
on his neighbours, has often accused the US government of plotting
his overthrow. He recently called the US a "terrorist"
state.
Although Franco-US relations have calmed somewhat since the row
over the Iraq war, Paris and Washington still have their differences.
This week brought disagreement over World Trade Organisation negotiations
on agriculture subsidies and over a proposed UNESCO convention
on "protecting cultural diversity" that Washington opposes
in the belief that France and other countries will use it to justify
barriers to Hollywood film exports.
The Venezuelan leader came to France with a 40-strong delegation
of industrialists and on Thursday a meeting with French business
leaders is planned.
Trade between the two countries in the first half of this year
stood at 235 million euros (280 million dollars) with the balance
tilted in favour of Venezuela, thanks to its exports of oil and
derivative products to France.
During the mini summit Chirac reiterated that France and the European
Union supported regional integration in Latin America as a "boon
for stability and economic and social progress," according
to Bonnanfot, who said the French president noted Venezuela's
recent accession to MERCOSUR, the common market of Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Earlier Wednesday, Chavez lunched with French Prime Minister Dominique
de Villepin, who spoke of the "common vision between the
two countries."
Villepin added, in an impeccable Spanish he learnt growing up
in Caracas, that "relations between France and Venezuela
are very good and we are looking to develop our cooperation on
all levels."
"I think the next few months and years are going to prove
very important in the cooperation between our two countries,"
he added.
Chavez met Chirac in March in Paris, and then again in August
on the French island of Martinique, where the two paid their respects
to 152 French passengers who died aboard a chartered plane that
crashed in Venezuela.
"This third meeting of the year shows the close, human and
personal relationship that unites the two leaders," the Venezuelan
ambassador to Paris, Roy Chaderton Matos, told AFP.
AFP
10/19/05
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© 2005 AFP. All rights reserved
