Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro holds a press conference in the Venezuelan embassy in the People's Republic of China, September 14, 2023. Photo: Presidential Press.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced that Venezuela is on a path to continue to rise as an emerging power of the Global South.
“By the time of the centenary of Venezuela-China relations,” President Maduro said during a press conference with Chinese and international media during his presidential tour in China this Thursday, September 14, “I am sure that Venezuela will have risen as an emerging power of South America, of the Global South, and there we will be together, hand in hand, China and Venezuela.”
“We have a relationship of friendship, of trust, and we ratify this path, the elevation of Venezuela-China relations, now to a powerful strategic association,” added the Venezuelan president, noting that the relationship has now entered a new stage: an “all-weather strategic partnership.”
He explained that the strategic relationship addresses both qualitative and quantitative aspects of relations between the nations, with the aim of cooperation in important areas for the mutual development of Venezuela and China.
“There will be nothing that could stop us on the path of development, expansion, growth, construction, of a powerful economic base for the social happiness of our people, and every moment in the times to come will be seen and measured,” Maduro declared during the press conference, held in the Hugo Chávez Hall of the Venezuelan Embassy in China.
Progress in China-Venezuela strategic relations
“Never before have we had a document of such depth, strategic importance, and consensus as this document, which contains 30 topics on China-Venezuela relations and beyond,” President Maduro said, referring to the strategic partnership agreement signed between the two countries.
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He added that his China tour has been successful because “we have found new solutions for old issues, and we have also found new paths that will lead us to a higher level relationship.”
He highlighted that “for the first time in 49 years of our relationship, we have signed an agreement for Venezuela to market its products in China.” The products to be exported are coffee, avocado, octopus, and fish.
“We have adopted an agreement on the Belt and Road initiative,” President Maduro continued, asserting that Venezuela will be China’s gateway to South America and Latin America. “We agreed to speed up the process for the signing of the agreement and cooperation on the joint construction of the Belt and Road between China and Venezuela.”
China is the largest developmental force in Latin America
The Venezuelan president highlighted China as the greatest force for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. “China’s economic and investment presence in Latin America and the Caribbean is the greatest force for development in the region today,” he said.
He emphasized that the Asian nation is an economic superpower that seeks the construction of humanity in a community of shared destiny, the design of which comes with the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“China has become a financial and economic superpower, but not an imperialist superpower, not a colonialist superpower,” Maduro said. “It is a superpower based on the principle of peace, cooperation, and shared development.”
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He further said that everything achieved with Chinese assistance “has been a force of positive impact for the economy of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, and no one will be able to counteract this.”
“We are in the 21st century, the century of the end of hegemonism, of imperialism,” the Venezuelan president explained, “it is the century in which a different world is born, a multipolar world, a pluricentric world for peace and cooperation.”
Venezuela’s spirit will not be broken
President Nicolás Maduro said that “no amount of unilateral coercive measures can break Venezuela’s unbending spirit of producing, working, and growing.”
President Maduro indicated that his government is seeking appropriate strategies within the framework of international law so that the United Nations takes a stand against the coercive and unilateral measures that “the West has used and abused,” through the US-dominated global financial “rules-based order” that is negatively impacting several countries.
“China and Venezuela have ratified the strengthening of the Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter,” he declared, “and it will be the central element of a unified strategy, so that sooner rather than later, the United Nations condemns and reverses the systems of unilateral coercive measures.”
Display of friendship and brotherhood
At the end of his China visit, President Maduro gave a gift to Chinese President Xi Jinping of a photo album, consisting of photographs of the latter’s official visit to Venezuela in 2014.
Finalizando la nutrida jornada de trabajo con el Presidente Xi Jinping, le entregué un álbum con las fotografías de su visita oficial a Venezuela en el año 2014. Una sólida hermandad nos une y llena de fuerzas en el inicio en la Cuarta Etapa de la Relación Bilateral del más alto… pic.twitter.com/LFg5lljyvA
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) September 14, 2023
“Ending the busy workday with President Xi Jinping, I gave him an album with photographs of his official visit to Venezuela in 2014,” President Maduro wrote in a post on X, along with a video showing the moment. “A solid brotherhood unites us and fills us with strength at the beginning of the Fourth Stage of the Bilateral Relationship at the highest level.”
Upon receiving the album, President Xi recalled anecdotes of his visit to Venezuela, sharing them amicably with President Maduro.
He also gifted the Venezuelan president a Huawei Mate phone, Huawei’s new product that has taken global and social media by storm.
“I use Huawei because it is much safer,” said Maduro, who also recommended using the Chinese social media app WeChat.
“The people of Venezuela have a relationship of deep friendship and successful cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, and we are working to move forward with strength in the development of a new era of prosperity,” President Maduro wrote on WeChat. “I thank President Xi Jinping for his brotherhood and the immense effort for the construction of the superpower of peace that we admire.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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