The Blubber

Per Bloomberg

For years, Venezuela and China have had cooling ties with one another, but recently, their connections have been re-established. A Maduro government lawmaker, former industry minister, and vice president of the Venezuela-China Parliamentary Friendship Group, Rodolfo Sanz, said that China is a "strategic ally."

This comes as joint projects started floating and government contracts between the two were resuming. President Nicolas Maduro met with high-ranking officials from China. Both of them reportedly talked about how they could renew collaboration.

Regarding potential areas, telecommunications and oil could be included. Maduro gave a statement on March 27 saying that relation between the two countries has reached its "highest level."

Maduro: "Today, the relationship between China and Venezuela has reached its highest level of mutual trust, collaboration and work... We will continue to deepen our strategic relations with China even more."

This comes amid the intensifying rivalry between the US and China. In 2007, it was noted that China became Venezuela's key lender, providing infrastructure and oil project funds for Hugo Chavez, the late President.

China Latin America Research Center in Bogota director Parsifal D'Sola gave a statement regarding what happened to the relationship between the two countries.

D'Sola: "The relationship between China and Venezuela seriously deteriorated during the last decade due to the failure and endemic corruption around Chinese projects in the country."

Recently, it was noted that Argentina would start paying for Chinese imports in yuan instead of the US dollar. Starting in April, it was noted that the country would be paying for Chinese imports worth approximately $1 billion in yuan and not the US dollar.

This came after China and Brazil reached their own deal to trade in their own currencies instead of using the US dollar as an intermediary. This came with the expectation that the decision would help reduce costs.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Argentina will start to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than dollars
• China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary

Resources:

Bloomberg