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 News from Around the Americas | October 2005 
France and Venezuela Affirm "Common Vision," Deeper Ties
 Agence France-Presse
| | France's President Jacques Chirac (R) greets Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez outside the Elysee Palace in Paris before talks October 19, 2005. Chavez had an audience of foreign and local dignitaries in stitches with a joke on himself. (Reuters/John Schults) |
France and Venezuela affirmed their strong ties and said they wanted deeper cooperation "on all levels" in a Paris meeting of their leaders which was sure to add another sore point to their already prickly relations with the United States.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said after meeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez there was "a common vision between the two countries on relationships between the north and south (hemispheres) and on the need to change things, to have new ideas."
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," citing the sectors of education, energy and defence specifically.
"I think the next few months and years are going to prove very important in the cooperation between our two countries," he added.
Chavez went from that meeting to one with President Jacques Chirac.
It was the third time this year the two leaders have seen each other. 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.
It is a relationship that Washington has eyed with irritation.
Although Franco-US relations have calmed somewhat since the divergences over the Iraq war, Paris and Washington continue to have as many disputes in international fora as they do agreements.
This week has seen disaccord 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.
But it is Chavez, a firebrand politician fond of neo-Marxist rhetoric, who is the real bete noir where Washington is concerned.
The Venezuelan president has rankled the United States with his constant assertions that, since a failed 2002 coup against him he said was US-sponsored, he is an assassination target for the CIA.
The fact that his country is a major exporter of oil to the US, that he is building up his military forces and that he has developed close relations with Cuban leader Fidel Castro all means Washington is wary of him and his attempts to forge a Latin American grouping opposed to US "imperialism".
US officials are also worried that Chavez might be embarking on a nuclear programme, according to a report in Monday's Washington Times newspaper.
"They are quite kissy-kissy with Iran," the paper quoted an unnamed official as saying. "There is a lot of back and forth. Iranians show up at Venezuelan things. They are both pariah states that hang out together."
France was evidently not treating Venezuela as a pariah, however.
The two countries' respective foreign ministers, Ali Rodriguez and Philippe Douste-Blazy, held a meeting to discuss bilateral economic, political and cultural ties, and Chavez and a group of 40 Venezuelan business leaders were to gather with French corporate bosses on Thursday.
Chaderton said Venezuela viewed France as a "privileged partner" and said: "Our relationship with France goes beyond sentimentality and is based on political convergence, a similar vision of the world and significant trade."
Exchanges between the 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.
The French oil group Total is involved in Venezuela through a consortium called Sincor, which includes the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela company and the Norwegian group Statoil.
Chaderton said Venezuela also "admired France's military infrastructure" but said he was not aware of any deal for Paris to sell Mirage fighter jets to Caracas, despite behind-the-scenes lobbying by French officials.
Chavez arrived in Paris from Italy, where he called Tuesday for a "strategic alliance" with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the oil sector.
"Venezuela wants to become the principal oil provider for Europe and Italy," he said. |
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