The Venezuelan government hopes that the relationship with the United States can “advance” after the recent meeting between a White House delegation and President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Friday.
“It is a first approach in development and we hope that in the framework of diplomacy and constructive dialogue it can move forward”, Rodríguez pointed out during a forum in Turkey, broadcast on state television VTV.
The meeting between the delegation of senior White House officials and Maduro had the energy issue on the table at a time when the United States canceled its oil imports from Russia, a key ally of Venezuela, after the invasion of Ukraine.
“It has been an approach without impositions”, followed the person in charge. “We understand that the initial approaches cannot be conditioned under any circumstances and this approach was made within the strict scope of bilateral relations”.
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the United States in 2019, after the government of then President Donald Trump ignored Maduro, considering that his re-election a year earlier was fraudulent, a position that Biden maintains even after the meeting.
Washington also imposed a battery of sanctions against Caracas, which includes an oil embargo that is still in force.
“It was not Venezuela that withdrew from the United States, it was the United States that withdrew from Venezuela, that cut energy, economic, cooperation, historical relations”, Rodriguez pointed out.
“We maintain our position: the doors of Venezuela are open to any country that wants to arrive with respect, that considers us its equal and that respects the principle of self-determination of the Venezuelan people.”
Rodríguez estimated that this first meeting between Caracas and Washington, after years of tense relations, is “an example” of how to resolve the conflict between the two countries.
The exit “It must be dialogue, there can be no other path, because paths other than peace, negotiation, dialogue, international law suppose deep suffering for the peoples”he remarked.
Relations between the two countries were already complicated since the era of the late President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).
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Source: Gestion
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