Eurasia Press & News
Venezuelan leader, Algerian counterpart sign economic and political accords, discuss international issues.
ALGIERS – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday hailed as “very promising” the prospect of economic and energy cooperation with Algeria after meeting here with the country’s leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Â
Algeria “has a lot of experience in gas resources and we can benefit enormously from that experience,” Chavez was cited as saying by the official Algerian news agency APS.
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Venezuela and Algeria are both members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the world’s most powerful oil cartel. Chavez stressed that his nation “was always interested in opening new channels of cooperation in other domains”.
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A fiery anti-US populist who visited Algeria twice before in 2000 and 2001, Chavez also said he discussed with Bouteflika several international issues, including the situation in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories.
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The leaders signed two accords, one on maritime transport and the other on furthering diplomatic exchanges.
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Before his one-day visit to the Algerian capital, Chavez was in London and Vienna where he had railed against alleged Western ‘imperialism’ in the developing world.
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On Monday the United States slapped military sanctions on Venezuela, one of its main oil suppliers, citing Chavez’s association with other regional left-wing leaders and a lack of cooperation in Washington’s “war on terror”.
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Chavez was expected to leave Algiers late Tuesday to travel to Tripoli for a meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. In 2004, the Venezuelan president received a human rights award named after the Libyan head of state.