Libya and Russia signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal on Saturday, Tripoli’s foreign minister said as Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi visited Moscow for talks he said could help restore “geopolitical equilibrium.”
Qaddafi’s first visit to Moscow since the Cold War era in 1985, which included meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was also expected to focus on oil and gas and arms purchases.
While Russian officials did not confirm the nuclear accord, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Chalgham described it as touching on a range of issues.
“A cooperation agreement was signed in the area of the peaceful use of civilian nuclear, particularly in the design and construction of reactors and the supply of nuclear fuel,” said Chalgham, who accompanied Qaddafi.
The deal also extended to nuclear use in medicine and nuclear waste treatment, he said.
The Kremlin made no comment and Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no such agreement had been signed during the meeting between Qaddafi and Putin.
Sources in the Libyan delegation said the deal was signed by the head of Russia’s atomic energy agency, Rosatom, and Libya’s head of nuclear energy management.
Chalgham said the two countries also signed agreements related to calls for the creation of an OPEC-style body for gas-producing countries, among others.
Qaddafi had earlier spoken of cooperating on energy.
“Cooperation in the gas and oil sphere is extremely important now,” Qaddafi told Medvedev, speaking through a Russian translator.
“We will discuss economic issues and coordination in the foreign-policy sphere, matters which are very important at the moment,” Medvedev said.
At his meeting with Putin, Qaddafi said: “The development of our bilateral relations is a positive factor for the international situation ... It contributes to the reestablishment of geopolitical equilibrium.”
Putin said the delegations would discuss “big common projects,” adding that he was sure that this visit would stimulate “the development of our relations in all areas.”
Vedomosti newspaper reported on Saturday that Qaddafi might sign a pact on nuclear energy cooperation, citing a source involved in preparations for his visit.
Russia has reportedly been in talks to build a nuclear power plant in Libya, long a diplomatic pariah, but in recent years the country has rejoined the international community.
Other expected topics included a multibillion-dollar deal to upgrade Libya’s Soviet-era arsenal and lucrative contracts for Russian firms.
Libya might also offer to host a Russian naval base at the port of Benghazi, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Friday.
“The Russian military presence will be a guarantee of non-aggression against Libya from the United States,” it said.
Kommersant said that Moscow wanted Tripoli to join it in a “gas OPEC” with Qatar. Russia, Iran and Qatar said last month they were forming a joint forum for gas projects but stopped short of advocating an OPEC-style cartel.
However, on Saturday Russian papers seemed more interested in Qaddafi’s travel arrangements, with the Izvestia daily running the headline: “ Qaddafi set up his tent in the Kremlin.”
Qaddafi brings a traditional Bedouin tent along with him on state visits, which he uses to host guests. A journalist saw a small fire burning in front of the khaki-colored tent on Saturday in the Kremlin’s Tainitsky Garden.
A Kremlin source said ahead of the visit that the two would discuss “the peaceful atom” as well as “military-technical cooperation,” a term that typically describes arms purchases.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
RSS