Spain has proposed sharing embassies, consulates and trade offices with its Latinamerican associate-members of the Pacific Alliance, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Foreign minister Jose Manuel García Margallo said that the idea of sharing some embassies and consulates already is operational in the European Union.
Lukoil, Russia's second-biggest oil producer wants to sell its stake in a Russian consortium developing a large oil project in Venezuela because it is not a high priority, Lukoil's head said on Wednesday.
The United States has expelled Venezuela's top diplomat and two others, after Venezuela kicked out three U.S. diplomats it accused of plotting sabotage. The Caracas government criticized the US response, saying the Venezuelan diplomats had not been meeting with groups opposed to US President Barack Obama.
Silvio Berlusconi backed away from his threat to topple Italy’s coalition government in a humiliating political climb down on Wednesday that could fatally weaken his 20-year grip on Italian politics. The billionaire former prime minister was forced into the last minute U-turn by a revolt that threatened to shatter his conservative party.
US President Barack Obama has warned that Wall Street should be concerned that a conservative faction of Republicans is willing to allow the country to default on its debt. The US government has partially closed after Congress failed to agree a budget and will run out of cash on 17 October unless its debt ceiling is raised.
Colombia, Peru and Chile announced on Wednesday the integration of their foreign exchange markets in the framework of MILA to facilitate money exchange operations between the three associates which add to a daily average turnover of 2,798bn. So far the Latinamerican Integrated Market, MILA, is operating with a combined stock market for the three nations.
Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire formally opened on Wednesday the British Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay which will be headed by Ambassador Jeremy Hobbs. Accompanied by Paraguayan Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga, he hailed the opening a symbol of the UK’s continued engagement in Latin America.
In a bid for transparency and reform, the Vatican bank openly published a financial report for the first time on Tuesday. But the report came amid new accounts of vague withdrawals and deposits made to and by the organization.
Pope Francis began landmark meetings this week to reform the Vatican, promising to do all he could to change the mentality of an institution he said was too focused on its own interests. Francis and eight cardinals from around the world are holding three days of closed-door meetings to discuss the Vatican's troubled administration and to map out possible changes in the worldwide Church.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff received her peer from Paraguay, Horacio Cartes with full head of state honours but at the same time reminded him that Paraguay is a full member of Mercosur and “bilateral relations are in the context of multilateral relations with all countries of the hemisphere”.