Venezuelan delegation plans talks with US on energy, debt and mining
Delcy Rodriguez arrives in New York for the UN General Assembly as her delegation prepares to discuss energy, debt and mining with US counterparts, sources say.
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A Venezuelan delegation led by interim president Delcy Rodriguez plans to discuss energy, debt and mining with US officials, with potential agreements to be signed, according to sources.
Rodriguez's arrival in New York marks the first appearance by a Venezuelan head of state at the UN General Assembly since Maduro spoke there in 2018, according to Channels Television. President Trump is set to hold an informal "pull-aside" meeting with her in New York this week, according to US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, cited by the Associated Press. It would be Trump's first meeting with Rodriguez since his administration carried out an operation that captured former leader Nicolas Maduro and installed her as acting president, the Associated Press reported. Maduro and his wife Cilia have been held at a Brooklyn jail since US forces seized them from their Caracas home in a raid in early January, and both have pleaded not guilty to cocaine-trafficking conspiracy charges, according to the Associated Press.
The talks follow months of gradual engagement. Venezuela's government said in early January it had begun an "exploratory" diplomatic process with Washington aimed at re-establishing formal missions, according to Al Jazeera, which noted that relations between the two countries deteriorated after the rise of the late Hugo Chavez in 1999. In February, Rodriguez met US envoy Laura Dogu at Miraflores presidential palace, where the agenda covered energy, trade and political and economic issues, and Venezuela named Felix Plasencia as its representative in Washington, according to All India Radio. Rodriguez has continued to cooperate with US demands since then, including granting American access to Venezuela's oil reserves; under a recent agreement the US secured control of about one-fifth of those reserves, according to Channels Television.
A further opening to Venezuela would mark a shift toward engagement rather than isolation, fitting a broader pattern of direct diplomacy the administration has pursued with adversaries and competitors. It adds another negotiating track at a time of elevated geopolitical tension, though for now it carries less immediate market weight than the energy supply disruptions and trade dynamics still driving investor sentiment.