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Chavez Will Meet Medvedev in Orenburg
Just days after Moscow dispatched a Navy squadron to Venezuela, the Latin American country's president will touch down in Orenburg for a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday.Hugo Chavez, an outspoken ally of Moscow, is stopping over during a flight from China to France, officials from the Venezuelan Embassy and Orenburg regional administration said Tuesday. The choice of Orenburg, capital of a region stretching along the border with Kazakhstan, is connected solely to Medvedev's schedule, a Venezuelan Embassy official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media. Alxei Likhtin, deputy information minister in the Orenburg regional government, confirmed that the two presidents were expected to meet later this week but refused to elaborate. "Apparently yes, but we do not know what sort of visit this will be, whether in the city of Orenburg or outside," Likhtin said by telephone. The Kremlin declined to comment. A spokesman, Andrei Solesnikov, merely said that no official announcement would be made Tuesday. The presidents will sign a bilateral cooperation agreement on energy, science and technology, Itar-Tass reported, citing a television address by Chavez last week. It was also unclear whether Chavez would meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that he could not comment yet. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin led a delegation of ministers and business executives to Caracas, where he oversaw deals to develop offshore gas fields with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela. Sechin also is chairman of state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. Moscow has intensified trade ties with Caracas in recent years, but after this summer's military campaign in Georgia, which sent relations with the West plummeting, the Kremlin stepped up military cooperation with the government of Chavez, a fiery leftist and critic of the United States. Posted by: Fred 2008-09-25 |
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