March 3, 2005
Brazil and Venezuela included Argentina in integration plans

(Agencia Estado, reproduced by BBC Monitoring Service) - "Merely a fortnight after the creation of the strategic Brazilian-Venezuelan alliance, Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez have decided to include President Néstor Kirchner's Argentina in the common project for integration of infrastructure, joint investments in the energy sector and cooperation in technology and other areas. The group of 19 projects approved on 14 February in Caracas converted into a 'trilateral' alliance at the meeting of the three presidents in Montevideo on 3 of March.

'It is the same alliance. We shall begin to give shape to a sort of trilateralism. We are taking a trilateral step on such themes as the energy alliance,' said Chávez (...)

'The strategic alliance has to advance step by step, as is the case with political and social bodies. South America is a child only thousands of years old,' Chávez added, referring to the goal of South American integration.

Marco Aurelio García, the special adviser on international affairs of the Brazilian Presidency, confirmed that the objective of the meeting is to 'give continuity to the Caracas agenda'.

But Chávez went a little further. The 'trilateral' initiative is expected to share the interests in investments, interchange of technology and business transactions of Petrobras (Brazilian Petroleum Corporation) PDVSA and Enarsa (Argentine State Energy Company, SA) (...)".