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Lukashenka, Chavez meet in Caracas

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with Venezuelan President and his close ally Hugo Chavez in Caracas on June 26, pledging to further cement ties with the South American country.

Speaking at the meeting, which was broadcast live by a Venezuelan television channel, Mr. Chavez described relations between the two countries as "not just a strategic union but a brotherhood" and said that Minsk and Caracas were pursuing joint projects in the spheres of oil and gas production, petrochemistry, housing construction, industry, agriculture, power engineering, and the construction of gas pipelines, said the Belarusian leader's press office.

Mr. Lukashenka, for his part, promised that all agreements reached by the two countries would be put into practice ahead of schedule and played up the level of Belarus' assistance to Venezuela. "We've come here not as colonizers. We are building plants, housing, training Venezuelans. Years later people will view the decision to diversify the economy as an exploit," he was quoted as saying.

After their talks, Messrs. Lukashenka and Chavez, via live video links, were told about the performance of a plant assembling Belarusian trucks in the state of Barinas and a building materials plant in the state of Miranda, the construction of housing by Belarusian companies in the city of Maracay, and a project to connect a Caracas district to the gas supply network.

An agreement was reached for the construction by a Belarusian company of a 600-megawatt power plant in the state of Barinas. The project will be funded with a Chinese loan of almost $1 billion, the press office said.
Summing up the talks, the leaders of Belarus and Venezuela said that the countries were determined to intensify bilateral cooperation.

Mr. Lukashenka stressed that two-way trade had soared from $6 million in 2006 to $1.5 billion in 2010 and 2011. //BelaPAN