New Delhi: Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez is expected to visit the national capital later this week as New Delhi seeks to diversify its oil sources.
The acting president was expected to be in India earlier for the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) summit, which was postponed due to the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Sources confirmed that Rodriguez’s visit to India is likely to occur “soon”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ahead of his visit to India last week, had announced that Rodriguez would visit New Delhi after his own trip to the national capital.
Rodriguez came to power in Venezuela earlier this year, after her predecessor Nicolas Maduro was arrested during a midnight raid by US forces from the presidential palace in Caracas. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are in American custody under serious charges including drug trafficking.
The acting president of Venezuela has since pivoted Caracas’ position becoming a close American partner in the region. US President Donald Trump has promised to reinvest in Venezuela’s oil industry.
The South American country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but has struggled in the last decade to maintain its wells as Caracas faced increasing isolation from the West. China has been Caracas’ biggest development partner, lending over $100 billion in the last two decades. Caracas has been repaying the loans in large part through its oil exports to Beijing.
However, following Trump’s military maneuver, Rodriguez has moved swiftly to remove Maduro’s loyalists from government, while the US has promoted the international supply of Venezuelan oil.
India, which was one of the largest importers of Venezuelan crude in the past had stopped following American sanctions on Caracas. However, in April, India purchased at least 283,000 barrels per day of crude from Venezuela as it seeks to diversify its oil supplies from Russia and West Asia.
For India, new sources of crude is important given the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s effective closure of the international waterway in response to the joint US-Israeli strikes has led to a surge in global oil prices. India’s own energy supply from West Asia has been severely impacted by the war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Rodriguez has twice visited India in the past including in 2016 and 2023. In 2023, as vice president of Venezuela, Rodriguez had also visited the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba. The Venezuelan acting president is a public follower of Sathya Sai Baba.
As a part of her visit to New Delhi, Rodriguez will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other senior Indian government officials are also expected to call on the acting president.
The visit was originally planned for 31 May and 1 June. However, India postponed the IBCA summit, as several African leaders were unable to attend due to the public health situation in the continent. India had also planned to host its fourth India – Africa Forum Summit between, which has since been rescheduled.
(Edited By Harini T S)
Also Read: What the world gets wrong about Venezuela’s Left–Right divide