By Prensa Latina,
Pretoria : South Africa and Venezuela signed on Tuesday important agreements to consolidate South-South cooperation, official sources reported.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his South African peer Thabo Mbeki signed the Framework Agreement, which according to the presidents is of great significance for full development of both nations, integration and establishment of a new world order.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Poeple”s Power Minister for Venezuela”s Energy and Oil Rafael Ramirez, other officials of the South American country and South African Executive members participated in the ceremony to sign cultural, economic and telecommunication agreements.
In après conference, Mbeki asserted that those agreements would contribute to strengthen relations among the southern hemispheric countries, and would help avoid intermediaries and reduce costs.
He also explained that those agreements “include a global agreement and constituent parts of energy issues, also about economic issues, telecommunications and also cooperation in arts and culture.”
“This is a relation that we wish to build and it will have a significant impact, mostly on bilateral relations, and we would like to work in such a way that it allowed us achieving practical results and also results that are tangible in a short term,” the South African president said.
Mbeki asserted that Chavez requested to implement the projects for them not to remain only on papers.
He also said the talks were good to identify situations beyond bilateral agreements, especially to analyze the situation in Latin America, Africa and also the global panorama.
“We are really grateful, because President Chavez has been able to come to South Africa, even more for the results achieved in the talks that have confirmed again that both countries have this opportunity to build a mutually beneficial relation, said Mbeki.