Venezuela and Mali sign bilateral energy deal

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in the West African nation of Mali yesterday for a one-day visit, promising to invest more in the impoverished country after signing a bilateral energy agreement.

Chavez gave an early morning interview to Malian radio in which he said the Malian and Venezuelan people have the ”same destiny” and are set to embark on a “grand union”.

Later, Chavez and Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure signed agreements to cooperate in the energy sector, but no details were available.

“We started as friends this morning … now we leave you as brothers,” Chavez said after talks with Toure.

Venezuela – a top oil producer – has been courting African and other South American countries as its relations with the US have soured.

The Venezuelan president was expected to discuss oil prospects in Mali with Toure. Chavez had said he expected to sign a deal for Venezuela’s state oil company to help Mali explore for and produce oil.

“We think that Mali can become the axis of cooperation with Africa … that is the vision of the Venezuelan president,” said Rebecca Bello Chancez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the landlocked West African country.

Mali has five sedimentary basins that look like likely candidates for oil production, according to the country’s minister of energy and mines, Ahmed Diane Semega. The country is already exploring some sedimentary basins with Australia’s Baraka Petroleum.

Chavez was expected to continue on to Benin.

Chavez is know for a leftist stance – including his embrace of Cuban leader Fidel Castro – that has often put him in opposition to the US. During an appearance at an African Union summit last month, he said his nation was “tired of being exploited by the American empire” and declared solidarity with impoverished Africa.

Many African leaders once embraced Marxism, but the trend in recent years has been toward free-market reforms.