MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas 'sooner than later' will return to Argentina, forecasts Maduro

Ministers Rossi and Admiral Meléndez during the bilateral talks on defense cooperation

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro forecasted that “sooner than later, the Malvinas Islands will return to the hands of the Argentine people” and recalled that during the recent Celac summit in Cuba (Community of Latin-American and Caribbean States) Latin-American was declared “a territory of peace and free of colonialism”.

 Maduro made the statement on Thursday evening during the graduation ceremony of the National Bolivarian Police in Caracas, an event which had as a special guest Argentine defense minister Agustín Rossi who visited Venezuela to sign several defense cooperation agreements.

“Our nations will continue to share experiences and support each other to consolidate South America as a territory of peace. We have a permanent exchange of high level delegations in all fields: economic, political, cultural, military which are helping build the real integration, the union of Latin-American in the XXI century”, said Maduro.

On Friday Rossi and his Venezuelan peer, Admiral Carmen Meléndez signed an eight point agreement, among which the use of Venezuelan fluvial patrols and Argentine training aircraft in 'advanced' military exercises. Similarly the Argentine could purchase fluvial patrols and Venezuela the Pampa III training aircraft

“We have also agreed on technology transfer for the complementation of a ammonia nitrate plant, a project we want to develop in Venezuela”, said Rossi.

Admiral Meléndez said that the final document and Caracas declaration signed with Rossi defines “areas of bilateral defense cooperation in technology, science and education with special emphasis in the Nestor Kirchner and Hugo Chavez chairs”, the two leaders who ruled Argentina and Venezuela until recently.

“Our north is the south, as Commander Chavez use to say, and on that path we shall continue, united to consolidate regional integration”, added Meléndez who did not offer more details of the accords' extent.

“Chavez and Kirchner were the great builders of this Latin-American union which we are living”, pointed out Rossi who also recalled that Venezuela and Argentina are “active members” of the Unasur Defense Council.

Rossi likewise thanked Venezuela and the rest of the region's countries “for their standing support in the Malvinas question”, the islands which are a British Overseas Territory but over which Argentina claims sovereignty.

The Venezuelan Defense ministry website says that the agenda with Argentina has “a preponderant position in the training of military and in preparing civilians for defense duties”. Likewise ”armed forces information exchange referred to emergency activities; the situation in Haiti and the Unasur Defense Council agenda.