Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez is set to hold a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday in Istanbul amid a surprise visit to Türkiye, according to Arab News.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced on X that Rodríguez arrived at the invitation of Erdoğan.
The Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus is set to host the meeting at 5:30 p.m. (1430 GMT).
Following a five-day visit to India, Rodríguez, who has led Venezuela since the US captured former president Nicolás Maduro in January, arrived in Istanbul late Sunday.
Türkiye and oil-rich Venezuela share close relations, and Erdoğan also had deep ties with late socialist leader Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro.
The mutual cooperation between the two countries has further expanded in the recent years through a series of agreements spanning defense, energy, tourism, and agriculture.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but years of corruption, chronic underinvestment, and mismanagement have caused a sharp decline in production.
In January, American special operations forces captured Maduro and his wife and took them to New York to face criminal charges.
US President Donald Trump said that the military operation was, at least in part, driven by an attempt to secure greater access to Venezuela’s oil.
Trump also announced that Washington would run the country until a safe, proper, and judicious transition can be carried out, according to the New York Times.
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