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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Iran, Venezuela welcome expansion of investment, trade ties |
| 2004-08-29 |
Tehran, Aug 29, 2004 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- Minister of Industry and Mines Eshaq Jahangiri in a meeting here Saturday [29 August] with visiting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jesus Perez stressed economic cooperation between the two states. The ministry's public relations department quoted Jahangiri as calling the bilateral relations as cordial and expressing Iran's readiness to expand cooperation in investments and trade between the two nations. Manufacturing agricultural machinery and marine equipment, road building, as well as cooperation in oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors are all grounds for closer cooperation, he added. He also referred to the future trip to Iran by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, expressing hope that "cooperation agreements will be finalized and signed during his trip to Tehran." Jahangiri said primary areas of agreements are support and promotion of joint investments, removal of double taxation, as well as commissioning banking and shipping projects. Perez also welcomed closer economic and trade ties between the two nations. "Currently there are ample grounds for cooperation in trade, scientific and commercial areas," he added. Perez, heading a politico-economic delegation, arrived here Saturday evening. Hugo Chavez won Venezuela's recent recall referendum with more than 57 per cent of the official result. Chavez, a former paratrooper colonel, failed in 1992 to take Venezuela in a coup. He became a folk hero during his two years in prison, and claimed to have launched the coup to rid Venezuela of its "corrupt oligarchy." He won the presidency in 1998, campaigned for a constitutional convention, and was re-elected under the new constitution in 2000. Chavez is a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and an opponent of the US-led war in Iraq. His country is the world's fifth biggest crude exporter and supplies 13 per cent of the oil consumed in the United States. Source: IRNA web site, Tehran, in English 1825 gmt 29 Aug 04 BBC Mon ME1 MEPol grs |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |