Venezuela, China ink 38 economic cooperation agreements

CARACAS, July 22 (Itar-Tass) - A total of 38 agreements on economic cooperation were signed between Venezuela and China following an intergovernmental session, held in the Venezuelan capital on Monday and attended by the leaders of both countries. The agreements, signed in Caracas after the 13th Chinese-Venezuelan intergovernmental session attended by Venezuelan President Niocolas Maduro and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, are aimed to promote and implement joint projects in the spheres of Venezuelan oil production, agriculture, industry as well as in the social and cultural spheres. Speaking at the session’s closing ceremony, Xi Jinping said he hoped that “relations of friendship and cooperation between China and Venezuela will be passed along from generation to generation.” The Chinese leader also said that over 200 bilateral agreements were signed between the Asian and Latin American nations since 2001. “We are passing through the historically important stage of our relations development with China, which reached the level of the integrated strategic alliance,” Venezuelan President Maduro said addressing the session. “We seek happiness and welfare for our peoples by implying joint efforts.” Maduro and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who is currently on his official tour to Latin American countries, held a bilateral meeting on Sunday and as a result declared the formation of the strategic alliance between Venezuela and China. The Venezuelan president said after the talks with the Chinese leader that diplomatic relations between the two countries had been successfully maintained for over the past 40 years and the decisive stage of strengthening bilateral ties was reached after late President Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. The trade between China and Venezuela under the presidency of Chavez, who passed away in March of 2013, and his successor Maduro soared from $1.4 million to the current $19.2 billion. Over the past 15 years Venezuela turned into the fourth most important Latin American trade partner for China. On Sunday, Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and Mining Rafael Ramirez said his country intended to increase oil exports to China to one million barrels per day by 2016. Venezuela started oil exports to China in 2005 at the volume of 49,000 barrels per day and the figure grew to 524,000 barrels per day in 2013. Learn more on itar-tass.com