The United States government and the Venezuelan interim authorities agreed on Thursday to reestablish diplomatic and consular relations in order to “promote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation” in the Latin American country.
“The United States and the Venezuelan interim authorities have agreed to reestablish diplomatic and consular relations. This step will facilitate our joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela,” the US State Department said in a statement.
The announcement was echoed by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, which, in a statement released by its head, Yván Gil, also highlighted its “willingness to move forward into a new stage of constructive dialogue, based on mutual respect, the sovereign equality of states, and cooperation between our peoples.”
“Venezuela expresses its confidence that this process will contribute to strengthening understanding and opening opportunities for a positive and mutually beneficial relationship,” he added, before emphasizing that this new chapter in relations between Caracas and Washington “should result in the social and economic well-being of the Venezuelan people,” considering that this decision “accompanies the fruitful dialogue that Venezuelans are holding among themselves, aimed at strengthening coexistence, peace, and national understanding.”
The announcement comes at a time of increasing openness from the United States toward Venezuela, particularly in the energy sector, where President Donald Trump has set out to revitalize the Venezuelan oil industry and already trades hydrocarbons from that country.
In fact, this very Thursday, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, reiterated her government’s willingness to build a joint working agenda with the White House, during an event where she was accompanied by US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and where an agreement was formalized between the oil company Shell and the Venezuelan engineering firm Vepica.
“It makes me very happy to see Venezuelan companies becoming involved in the energy and mining agenda at the international level,” said the former deputy to Nicolás Maduro, who has been imprisoned in New York since his capture in early January during the US attack on Caracas that left over a hundred dead.
