Chapter 176 Liu Tao: I Love Making Friends
In the afternoon.
Liu Tao received a call and drove out with his guards.
"Mr. Hassan, who is this?" Liu Tao was surprised to see a strange Arab.
Hassan is the head of the Syrian Embassy in China.
In addition to the first cooperation, the two sides had another cooperation later, but the orders from Syria were not big.
Hassan smiled and introduced: "This is Hadi, the head of the Libyan Embassy in China."
"Hadi asked me to make friends with you this time." Hassan explained the purpose of meeting Liu Tao.
Liu Tao looked at the middle-aged man with some surprise. It turned out that he was from Libya.
Unlike Syria and China, which established diplomatic relations in 1956, Libya was a country that established diplomatic relations with China relatively late. The two sides only established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level two years ago.
At this time, Libya was rich because of its abundant oil and the surge in oil prices.
Although Libya has a total population of only 3 million, its area is as high as 1.76 million square kilometers. In 1969, the "Free Officers" organization headed by Gaddafi launched the September Revolution, overthrew the Idris Dynasty, and established the Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi is a man sent from heaven, extremely strong, and very tough. In the second year after overthrowing Idris, he announced the recovery of the military bases set up by the United States near Tripoli, the capital of Libya. The relationship between the two sides deteriorated. Just this year, the United States even closed its embassy in Libya.
Libya has a large land area, but more than 95% of the territory is desert and semi-desert. With a population of 3 million and 1.76 million square kilometers of land, it seems sparsely populated. Libya's proven oil and natural gas reserves rank first in Africa, at 21.188 billion barrels and 1 trillion cubic meters respectively.
Among them, the proven reserves of oil of 21.188 billion barrels rank tenth in the world, nearly 8 billion barrels more than the proven reserves of Huaxia Petroleum of 13.329 billion barrels. The proven reserves of natural gas are 1 trillion cubic meters, which also ranks tenth in the world, and are also much more than China.
As a major oil-producing country, Libya has made a fortune. After all, Gaddafi is a tough guy. After establishing the regime, he implemented a single state-owned economy. All the oil in the country is owned by the state, which made Libya's income soar like a rocket.
Now Libya's GDP is as high as 33 billion US dollars, and its per capita GDP is as high as 11,000 US dollars, which is 56 times that of China now. It is no exaggeration to say that Libya is the richest country in Africa and a developed country in the eyes of many people.
Libya is not on good terms with European and American countries. In addition to taking back the old American military base in 1970, when the old Americans were deeply mired in the Vietnam War, Gaddafi felt that the opportunity could not be missed, and decisively announced in 1973 that the shares of American oil companies would be nationalized.
The most amazing thing is that not a penny was compensated to the other party, and it was confiscated cleanly.
The old Americans naturally wanted to retaliate, but they were helpless. Deep in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, the domestic economy is weak, and it is unable to open a second battlefield in North Africa. In recent years, the United States has been licking its wounds and recovering its vitality. In addition, Libya is a younger brother of the Soviet Union. If it rashly takes action against Libya, it will provoke unpredictable reactions from the Soviet Union.
Liu Tao was surprised that the other party wanted to meet him. You know, Libya is a younger brother of the Soviet Union, and everyone knows the relationship between China and the Soviet Union now.
"Mr. Liu, it's nice to meet you. Hassan is my friend. This time I asked him to help me connect. Please forgive me." Hadi said with a smile, "I hope to make friends with you and establish friendship between us."
Liu Tao smiled and said, "Mr. Hadi, it's nice to meet you. I like making friends the most."
Although he said so, Liu Tao's heart became more and more confused.
Libya's relationship with the United States is very bad now, but its relationship with China is also average, and the two even had unpleasantness in the past.
In the 1960s, China reached an aid agreement with Tanzania to help them build railways, etc., and the conditions in Tanzania gradually improved. Last year, Uganda attacked Tanzania to solve its domestic crisis, but was quickly repelled. In desperation, it asked for help from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan had always wanted to be the big brother of Africa, so he naturally agreed to Uganda's request for help and intervened in the Uganda-Tanzania war, but in the end he still lost. Kazakhstan cursed Uganda a lot during this period.
After a brief greeting, Hadi also explained his purpose - to purchase a batch of arms!
Liu Tao was even more surprised.
You should know that Libya has implemented a military service system combining compulsory soldiers and staff lists since the "September 1st Revolution", with a service period of 2 years. So although Libya's total population is only 3 million, it is definitely full of martial virtues and the army is not weak. The total strength of the three armed forces is 65,000, and the paramilitary force "People's Armed Forces" is 50,000. The army has 35,000 people, 2,950 tanks, 2,160 armored vehicles, 1,690 artillery pieces, 1 tank division, 38 tank battalions, 2 mechanized infantry divisions, 50 mechanized infantry battalions, 1 national guard brigade, 41 artillery battalions, 12 airdrop assault battalions, and 6 surface-to-air missile brigades.
The navy has 8,000 people (including the Coast Guard), equipped with submarines, frigates, coastal defense ships, anti-submarine speedboats, patrol boats, mine ships, support ships and helicopters.
The air force has about 22,000 people (including air defense forces), 513 combat aircraft, 54 armed helicopters, 89 training aircraft, 1 bomber squadron, 9 fighter squadrons, 7 ground attack fighter squadrons, 1 counterinsurgency squadron, 1 reconnaissance squadron, and 2 transport squadrons.
The Libyan army of this era is an armed force that cannot be underestimated in Africa, known as the "African Lion". The Libyan army is well-equipped and can definitely be called an elite division.
If you only look at the data on paper, Libya's armed forces are even better than China's.
Because Libya's tanks and armored vehicles are more advanced than China's, and its aircraft are also more advanced than China's.
In some military magazines in the world, Libya is ranked ahead of China in the ranking of military power.
Liu Tao calculated in his mind and began to analyze.
"It seems that Libya's involvement in the Ukrainian-Tanzania war last year and its intervention in the Chad civil war this year have caused considerable losses!" Liu Tao said in his heart.
This was the biggest possibility he could think of.
"Who cares? They've placed orders. As an arms dealer, how can I not do business when I'm open?" Liu Tao said secretly, having decided to take on the deal.
Although the relationship between the two sides is not very harmonious, diplomatic relations are diplomatic relations, and business is business. Business can still be done.
"It's no problem to purchase arms. I wonder which types you want to purchase? How many do you want to purchase?" Liu Tao said with a bright smile on his face, "Of course I have to remind Hadi, my friend, that I do not attach any conditions to my business, but you must pay half of the deposit first, and the balance must be settled when the goods are delivered before loading. You can use your own merchant ship to load the goods, or you can ask other freight companies to load the goods. If you find our shipping company, it's not impossible, but you have to pay the freight yourself."
Liu Tao first explained the rules of his business, so that Hadi would not be confused.