Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro announced on Thursday in Beijing the signing of an aerospace cooperation agreement with China, which provides for sending the “first Venezuelan to the moon.”
“We are in the Great Palace of the People. It was a successful working day! Let’s go to the moon,” Maduro said, in a video broadcast via the social network X, formerly Twitter.
We had a successful working day with President Xi Jinping of the Pueblo Palace in China. Consolidating this strategic association integral to all Prueba and all times, within the framework of what will be a new brilliant phase between China and Venezuela… pic.twitter.com/qBPtLSVpMZ
– Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) September 13, 2023
During a speech, the Venezuelan President praised the signing of several agreements with China in various areas, indicating this the collaboration will “symbolize the arrival of the first man or woman from Venezuela on the moon aboard a Chinese spacecraft.”
“Very soon, young Venezuelans will come here [China]to undergo astronaut training in Chinese schools,” he added.
The joint statement by the leaders of the two countries aims to “raise the level of bilateral ties and deepen cooperation in various areas,” including energy, finance, economy, trade, investment, mining, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and the digital economy.
“The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of aerospace […] and are willing to cooperate” on “projects such as telecommunications, remote sensing satellites and lunar and deep space exploration,” the text said.
Venezuela is currently in a serious economic crisis. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen by 80% in ten years. About seven million of the thirty million inhabitants left the country.
Isolated by US oil sanctions, Venezuela has turned to China, Russia, Iran and Turkey. Venezuelan authorities regularly claim that sanctions are the cause of the crisis, but the recession started long before their introduction.
Maduro, who has visited China five times since coming to power – the last time in 2018 – today ended a week-long visit to the Asian country.
Venezuela sought support from China to revive its economy, which was hit by one of the highest inflation rates in the world (436% in May).
Nicolás Maduro, a fierce critic of the United States, praised China as a country “without a hegemonic empire that blackmails, dominates and attacks the people of the world.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping last visited Venezuela in 2014.
Xi received Maduro on Wednesday with a guard of honor, gun salutes and the two countries’ national anthem played by a military band at the Grand Palace of the People, the landmark building next to Tiananmen Square.
The Chinese leader announced the elevation of China-Venezuela relations to the highest protocol level in Chinese diplomacy.
“I am very happy to announce the elevation of China-Venezuela relations to the level of strategic partnership in ‘good times and bad times,’” Xi Jinping said, as quoted by state television CCTV.
Source: DN
