Venezuelan VP Rodriguez to Seek Business Alliances in India

On Wednesday, the Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi in search of new commercial alliances with India.

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She will participate tomorrow in the 9th India and Latin America & the Caribbean Conclave (India-LAC), which was organized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be focused on the South American country.

"We have arrived in India, a world power, to participate, on behalf of President Nicolas Maduro, in the 9th India-LAC Conclave, as well as to attend to an important bilateral agenda that benefits our peoples!," Rodriguez tweeted.

Besides holding meetings with businessmen, she will dialogue with senior officials. Possibly, the Bolivarian vice president will also hold a meeting with Modi, although this has not yet been confirmed.

On Thursday, India's Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will lead the opening session of the India-LAC meeting. Participants will discuss how bilateral trade can double in the next five years and what steps are needed to further diversify it.

In the special session on Venezuela to be held on Friday, Rodriguez will participate together with Felix Plasencia, the president of the Venezuelan Center for Productive Investment. 

In the past, Venezuela expressed its willingness to increase oil exports to India, which is in turn the base of Reliance Industries Limited, one of the few refineries capable of processing Venezuelan medium and heavy crudes.

India became the second largest customer for Venezuela's oil exports, and later the main oil market and source of hard currency for the Maduro administration, until the U.S. sanctions on state oil company PDVSA led to a halt to imports. In 2022, the Indian government expressed interest in allowing the resumption of oil supplies from Venezuela and Iran.

Previously, the highest-level visit to New Delhi by Venezuelah officials took place in 2005, when the late President Hugo Chavez prompted the greatest boost to bilateral ties.