PM holds talks with acting Venezuela leader
amid US tensions
Prime Minister Modi on Friday held talks with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez and agreed to intensify ties and take them to “new heights” in the years afore tensions with the US. This is the first interaction amid
PM Modi and Rodriguez after the dramatic capture of long-time autocratic President Nicolas Maduro in an overnight US military operation on January 3.
PM Modi tweeted; ‘spoke with acting President of Venezuela, Ms Delcy Rodriguez. Agreed to further intensify and expand bilateral alliance in all areas, with a shared vision of taking India-Venezuela relations to new heights in the years ahead
Both leaders exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest and underscored the importance of their close cooperation for the Global South.
The PM Modi-Rodriguez talks assumed significance as
US President Donald Trump eyes Venezuelan crude oil reserves and threatens tariffs on countries not reaching a trade deal with countries, including India. Currently, Washington has imposed a total of 50 per cent tariffs on New Delhi over its Russian crude oil imports.
The White House has signalled it was willing to let India purchase Venezuelan oil under a new US-controlled arrangement, potentially reopening a channel of trade that had been stalled by American sanctions.
In March last year, Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported into the US from any country that buys Venezuelan oil (directly or indirectly).
Recently, US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright said the US intends to sell 30 million to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude that are currently in storage, and subsequently offer additional oil from future production — a step that could reshape segments of the global oil market with Washington overseeing the process.
In an interview with Fox Business, Wright explained that Venezuelan oil would be allowed to flow again, but only through a tightly regulated framework. “So that oil, we’re allowing it to flow. Again, it’s marketed by the United States government. The money’s gonna flow into accounts,” he had said.
Trump, who has pledged to sell up to
50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, claimed that oil companies would invest “at least USD 100 billion of their money” into reviving Venezuela’s energy sector. The comments that carry weight as Washington attempts to boost output in a country sitting on the world’s largest proven oil reserves but hampered by years of sanctions, mismanagement and underinvestment.
The US has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Venezuela over the past decade, due to factors, including political repression, corruption and weakening of democratic institutions under the regimes of Maduro and Hugo Chavez.
India and Venezuela have traditionally maintained warm bilateral relations with diplomatic engagement spanning decades. Energy cooperation, especially in oil, has been a key component of this relationship since the early 2000s. For many years, Venezuela was an important crude oil supplier to India, with Indian refiners processing significant volumes of heavy crude from Caracas.
At times, India imported hundreds of thousands of barrels per day, at one point nearly half of Venezuela’s total exports. However, the oil trade was sharply curtailed after US sanctions were tightened in the late 2010s, forcing Indian companies to cut purchases to avoid secondary penalties.
By the 2024–25 fiscal year, India’s crude oil imports from Venezuela had declined dramatically — down over 80 per cent compared with the previous year — and bilateral trade overall remained modest.
India’s imports from Venezuela in FY 2025 were valued at roughly USD 364.5 million, with crude oil accounting for around USD 255 million, while exports were valued around USD 95 million, led by pharmaceuticals.
News Edit KV Raman
