Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced this Thursday in Beijing the signing of an aerospace cooperation agreement with China, which includes 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.
During his speech, the Venezuelan president praised the signing of several agreements with China in various fields, indicating that cooperation would be “symbolized by 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 train as astronauts in Chinese schools,” he added.
The joint declaration by the two leaders calls for “increasing the level of bilateral ties and deepening cooperation in various fields,” including energy, finance, economics, trade, investment, mining, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and the digital economy.
“Both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the aerospace industry. […] and are willing to work together “on projects such as telecommunications, remote sensing satellites, and lunar and deep space exploration,” the text says.
Venezuela is currently immersed in a serious economic crisis. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen by 80% in 10 years. About seven million of the country’s 30 million inhabitants fled 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 began long before they were introduced.
Maduro, who has visited China five times since coming to power (most recently in 2018), ended a week-long visit to the Asian country this Thursday.
Venezuela has turned to China for support to revive its economy, which has been hit by one of the world’s highest inflation rates (436% in May).
Fierce critic of the United States Nicolas Maduro praised China as a country “without a hegemonic empire that blackmails, dominates and attacks the peoples of the world.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping last visited Venezuela in 2014.
Xi Jinping received Maduro on Wednesday at the Grand People’s Palace, a monumental building adjacent to Tiananmen Square, accompanied by a guard of honor, cannon salutes and the two countries’ anthems played by a military band.
The Chinese leader announced raising relations between China and Venezuela to the highest protocol level of Chinese diplomacy.
“I am very pleased to announce the upgrade of China-Venezuela relations to the level of strategic partnership in both good and bad times,” Xi Jinping said, as quoted by state television CCTV.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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