Venezuela Opens A "New Dimension" in its Relationship with India

[Say_What]

Highlights of the India agreements. Interesting that we read none of this in the USSA press.

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Venezuela Opens A "New Dimension" in its Relationship with India

Caracas, Venezuela, March 7, 2005— During his four-day visit to India, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed six energy and cooperation agreements. India's largest energy company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and GAIL Ltd., will take a 49 percent stake in the Venezuelan oil field of San Cristobal and PDVSA, Venezuela's state-run oil company, will invest in India's Mangalore Refinery. In a joint statement released on Saturday, which classified the move to more closely cooperate as a "new dimension" in Venezuela-India relations, it was also announced that a joint commission for hydrocarbons will be established, and the two nations will closely cooperate in several fields, including biotechnology, rail industry, and space science.

...Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, is currently executing a two-fold petroleum strategy. According to PDVSA president Rafael Ramirez, within the next few years the South American nation plans to increase production from its current level of 3.1 million barrels per day to 5 million barrels per day. In the meantime, it is seeking to diversify its markets as a means to reduce its dependence on the United States, which currently buys over 60% of Venezuelan oil. The oil-rich nation has recently deepened cooperation and signed a number of agreements in the petroleum sector with Russia, China, Brazil and Argentina. It also supplies oil to a number of Latin American countries, including Cuba and Argentina, at reduced rates in exchange for technology, food, and medicine.

...The Venezuelan President had a packed schedule during his visit. In addition to agreements signed between the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company, PDVSA, and the Indian oil company, ONGC Videsh Ltd, Chávez visited several Indian companies including Biocon and Infosys. Biocon produces medicine for a wide range of diseases, from cancer to diabetes. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the President of Biocon, stated that the company could offer its products to Venezuela at prices in solidarity with the country.

...Economics was not the only item on the agenda. Chávez and Singh also discussed the political scene and called attention to, as stated in the joint declaration, "the need for revitalization of Non-Aligned Movement so that it emerges as a major pole in a multipolar world, by becoming a collective, pragmatic and serious voice of the south."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1536


Venezuela's Chavez visiting with India's President Abdul Kalam
Credit: Prensa Presidencial

[Skink]

Something tells me he soesn't like us. I mean the U.S.

[Say_What]

3. Why? Because he looks out for his own people rather than US business

interests?

[Skink]

1. Something tells me he soesn't like us. I mean the U.S.

[AP]

10. Any evidence?

[MasonJar]

2. You go, Chavez!

[Skink]

4. He the man!

[Say_What]

5. Chavez seeks Indian know-how for Venezuela: (Chavez quotes from speeches)

Quotes from Chavez' speech to industry captains at a business conference--comments toward the end of the article say that although Chavez was running two hours behind schedule, that he held the audience spellbound. Not a mention of the BULLSHIT we normally see in the USSA articles that were posted earlier.

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...."We are ready to follow the path of economic development that India has already embarked upon, to achieve self-sufficiency and independence in even diverse sectors such as ICT (information and communication technologies) BT (biotechnology), pharmaceutical, aerospace and manufacturing of capital goods in engineering, textiles, food processing and leather goods.

"We also need Indian know-how to develop our human resources in the knowledge sector. Though we are a small country with a population of about 260 million, we have started to tap the potential of our young men and women," the president said.

..."Even as both the governments engage in fruitful dialogue for intensifying cooperation in economic, trade and technology areas, Indian investors and entrepreneurs should visit Venezuela to explore joint ventures and collaborations in the areas of their expertise," Chavez told about the 300 participants, representing the old and new economies of India Inc.

..."Though we have signed agreements to cooperate in aerospace, satellites, railways and other areas, our first priority is to collaborate in IT and biotechnology to develop medicines, especially generic drugs to save lives," he added.

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=81635



Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, and his grandson Manolito watch a display by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) aircrafts before Chavez's departure, at the airport in Bangalore, India, Monday, March 7, 2005. Chavez was on a four-day visit, the first ever by a Venezuelan President, to strengthen trade relationships and cooperation between the two countries. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

[Say_What]

6. India visit historic and memorable: Hugo Chevaz (Chavez quotes on poverty)

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''You will see the results next month, you will see the results next year'' Mr Chavez told newsmen at the end of his four-day visit to the country adding that he was touched by the warm reception given to him and the response he received.

''We are keen on taking up India's offer on technologies to remove hunger and poverty besides taking up collaborative ventures in oil exploration'' he said while addressing members of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

From biotechnology to information technology and satellites, light machineries and food processing units, Venezuela was keen to take technologies from India, he added.

Referring to the first meeting of the Joint Commission to be held in Caracas from May 31, he urged the industries in India to accompany the Indian delegation to forge ties with their Venezuelan counterparts.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG3_sub.asp?ccode=ENG3&newscode=94994

[cliss]

7. Bush's stupidity = India's Golden Opportunity

Or, 'One man's Fight is Another man's Victory'.

I just can't get over how stupid they have been in Washington. I'm willing to bet that about 5 years ago, when Bush was "elected", he had meetings where oil executives sat in the Board Room and discussed oil.

They most probably discussed Venezuela, and of course Iraq and Iran. They probably fretted and fumed about watching their "Golden Goose" fly away. A hypothetical talk from 2001:

Oil Executive #1 (talks while he's eating lunch of Lobster Thermidor)
"As you know, Venezuela is very important to us. The quality is not as good as Saudi oil, but it's much closer. Plus, didn't Frank say that their reserves could be much more than the analysts estimated?

Oil Executive #2 (has a napkin hanging from his neck like a bib, drinks Perrier water). "According to estimates, Venezuela could be in the top 5 worldwide. Their reserves may be much bigger than we thought."

Oil Executive #3 "And don't forget, Venezuela will be much easier to handle. You know what's happening in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait will be fine, but Saddam is starting to piss us off, and we'll probably have to take action soon.

Oil Executive #2 "Venezuela is ours. We've worked awfully hard on our 'Neighbors to the South'. They're going to be much easier to control than The ME, you know". Think about it.

[Say_What]

9. It sounds crazy, but ...

Don't know if this analysis by for CIA analyst Ray McGovern has been posted. It's about those in power now that even Old Bush called 'the crazies'.

<clips>
It sounds crazy, but ...

....George H W Bush saw through the 'crazies'
During his term in office, George H W Bush, with the practical advice of his national security adviser General Brent Scowcroft and secretary of state James Baker, was able to keep the "crazies" at arms length, preventing them from getting the country into serious trouble. They were kept well below the level of "principal" - that is, below the level of secretary of state or defense.

Even so, heady in the afterglow of victory in the Gulf War of 1991, the "crazies" stirred up considerable controversy when they articulated their radical views. Their vision, for instance, became the centerpiece of the draft "Defense Planning Guidance" that Paul Wolfowitz, de facto dean of the neo-conservatives, prepared in 1992 for then-defense secretary Dick Cheney. It dismissed deterrence as an outdated relic of the Cold War and argued that the US must maintain military strength beyond conceivable challenge - and use it in preemptive ways in dealing with those who might acquire "weapons of mass destruction". Sound familiar?

Aghast at this radical imperial strategy for the post-Cold War world, someone with access to the draft leaked it to the New York Times, forcing Bush Snr either to endorse or disavow it. Disavow it he did - and quickly, on the cooler-head recommendations of Scowcroft and Baker, who proved themselves a bulwark against the hubris and megalomania of the "crazies". Unfortunately, their vision did not die. No less unfortunately, there is method to their madness - even if it threatens to spell eventual disaster for our country. Empires always overreach and fall.

The return of the neo-cons
In 2001, the new Bush brought the neo-cons back and put them in top policymaking positions. Even former assistant secretary of state Elliot Abrams, convicted in October 1991 of lying to Congress and then pardoned by George H W Bush, was called back and put in charge of Middle East policy in the White House. In January, he was promoted to the influential post (once occupied by Robert Gates) of deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs. From that senior position Abrams will once again be dealing closely with John Negroponte, an old colleague from rogue-elephant Contra War days, who has now been picked to be the first director of national intelligence.

Those of us who - like Powell - had front-row seats during the 1980s are far too concerned to dismiss the re-emergence of the neo-cons as a simple case of deja vu. They are much more dangerous now. Unlike in the 1980s, they are the ones crafting the adventurous policies our sons and daughters are being called on to implement.

http://www.energybulletin.net/4594.html

[Toots]

11. They were kept well below the level of "principal"

Ummm Wasn't Cheney Sec of Defense under Bush 1? IMHO he is the head Crazy....

[Blue to the bone]

8. One 'expectation' in that piece will be very difficult to accomplish....

...the one by the PDVSA President about increasing production from the current 3.1 million barrels per day to 5 million barrels per day within the next few years.

PDVSA has been saying they were going to increase production from about 3 million barrels per day to 5 million barrels per day for the last 10 years.

Everything else looks very promising and is the sort of thing that Chavez needs to do to back up his promise of cutting off the US when the next coup or assassination attempt comes.