UK Prime Minister Blair yesterday attacked the Bolivian and Venezuelan presidents over their moves to end the foreign exploitation of their countries’ gas and oil resources.
Blair made his attack on Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez at the EU-Latin America trade summit in Vienna.
The summit was dominated by the recent nationalisation of Bolivia’s oil and gas industries, ordered by Morales, and Venezuela’s decision to tax foreign oil firms and defy the United States.
The UK prime minister said that the tightening of state control over Bolivia’s and Venezuela’s energy sectors was ‘of concern’ to the ‘world community’.
In remarks to reporters on the sidelines of the summit, Blair said that energy was now ‘a major issue for countries’. He added: ‘Every country needs a secure energy supply.
‘Now I don’t want to go into the details of what is happening in either Venezuela or Bolivia but I mean all of us have a responsibility to the world community to try to manage this sensibly.’
He said: ‘The most important thing is that everyone uses their power they have responsibly.
‘That is what we want to have happen. People are worried about energy supply in the future.
‘What countries do in their energy policy matters enormously to all of us.’
Both Morales and Chavez have warned the imperialist powers to keep their noses out of the internal affairs of their two countries.
Morales had warned on Thursday that foreign companies will not be compensated following the nationalisation measures.
He told a press conference on the eve of the Vienna summit: ‘For more than 500 years, our resources have been pillaged. This has to end now.
‘What we are looking for at this summit are partners – not bosses.’
Venezuelan president Chavez is arriving in Britain today on a private visit, during which he will not be meeting Blair, whom he recently called the ‘main ally of Hitler Bush’.