Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Invited to Attend Solar Alliance Summit in India

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will visit India to attend the International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit to be held in the country in March. “Prime Minister Modi has invited President Maduro for the ISA next month. Besides the ISA, the agenda for the discussions between the two leaders is in the process of being finalized,” the Financial Express reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Despite the internal crisis that the South American country faced last year, the two countries continued with joint investment initiatives. Venezuela’s Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited decided to invest further in the San Cristobal joint venture (JV) over the coming years in order to increase production.

India is one of the largest buyers of Venezuelan crude oil, with Indian firms purchasing over 400,000 bpd. The country plans to further increase the supply to India, and is said to be in talks with Reliance Industries for a joint venture.

Venezuelan Ambassador Augusto Montiel had thanked India last year for its support when the country was facing economic crisis due to internal strife and low global crude oil prices. Support doesn’t always have to be open and public, and there are many ways in which countries support partners, he had said. “The fact that state owned Indian oil companies continue to invest in Venezuela is a clear sign that confidence in the country has not been diminished despite such negative reporting in the last few months,” he said, the Hindu reported.

India was also lauded by Venezuela for refraining from interfering and commenting on the internal affairs of the country. “We respect India’s stance of non-interference in internal matters of developing nations and would wish the U.S. to emulate this position; we believe the world would be a safer and more stable place,” Montiel had said.

Venezuela witnessed huge anti-government protests during the last two years by the Opposition as well as by citizens. Thousands demonstrated in the Venezuelan capital Caracas against Maduro, blaming him for shortage of essential commodities like medicine and food in the country. The pharmaceutical needs in Venezuela are met to a great extent by Indian products.

Venezuela has huge reserves of oil, the revenue from which helped its economy. However, as oil prices crashed in 2016, it left the Maduro government with less funds to import goods from other countries. In February 2016, new measures were announced by Maduro that aimed at fighting economic crisis, including currency devaluation and first petrol price rise in 20 years.