The Government of international pariah Hugo Chavez has signalled a challenge to Australia's influence in the Pacific with an aggressive diplomatic push based on cheap fuel for island states.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 38th Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga yesterday, Venezuela's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia, Middle East and the Pacific, Vladimir Poljak, said his Government was ready to help end the West's "domination" in the region.
In a further challenge to Australia -- one of the region's biggest aid donors -- Mr Poljak said Venezuela did not need the "permission" of bigger countries to establish contacts in the Pacific. Oil-rich Venezuela was granted observer status at the forum by host nation Tonga, despite international disquiet over Mr Chavez's ties with Iran and communist-controlled Cuba.
Mr Poljak seized the opportunity to court influence among the 15 nations represented at the forum. "I really want you to rest assured Venezuela has a very aggressive energy-(linked) political philosophy," he said. "Venezuela wants to end the use of fuel as a weapon of domination over smaller countries."
Since coming to power in 1998, Mr Chavez has embarked on a program of populist Left-leaning economic policies that challenge US pre-eminence in Latin America and now, apparently, the Pacific. The Chavez Government's decision to nationalise most of Venezuela's oil industry has led to prices there falling as low as 9c a litre, making it among the cheapest in the world. Asked how Venezuela might be able to help Pacific states, he suggested moves to tie them to the Chavez Government through cheap fuel.
"We can say our oil in Venezuela is used as an instrument of liberation because our oil policies are truly independent," he said.
"We have two choices: either we use it and be selfish about it or we use it and help others with it.
"We've used our oil to fund schools, health and research for the people. So I think our presence here at this forum really shows the true interest Venezuela has towards the Pacific.
"One of the things we are thinking of for Pacific countries is for them to have a storage space for their fuel and petroleum."
He did not say where or when the facility would be built but confirmed there had been approaches in recent months by Pacific states interested in securing closer economic and diplomatic links with Venezuela.
The Pacific Islands Forum ended yesterday amid confusion about the strength of its biggest achievement -- an agreement by coup leader Frank Bainimarama to return Fiji to democracy.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke welcomed an agreement for elections to be held by March 2009, but on Thursday Commodore Bainimarama threatened to amend Fiji's constitution in an apparent bid to prevent Laisenia Qarase -- the prime minister he deposed in December last year -- from contesting the poll.
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