Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to visit Turkey for talks with Erdogan

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, plans to visit Turkey on Monday for an official trip, multiple people familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye.

According to the same sources, Rodriguez is expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul during the visit.

Rodriguez has been in India since last week, where she has been discussing energy, trade and investment with Narendra Modi's government. She is expected to stop in Istanbul as another leg of the trip.

Turkey and Venezuela have strong political ties. Erdogan maintained a close rapport with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted by US forces in January, transferred to a detention centre in New York and is facing a federal criminal case.

After Maduro was removed from power, Rodriguez took over with the blessing of US President Donald Trump. She has since overseen an expansion of US interests in Venezuela, including those of oil company Chevron.

Maduro visited Turkey multiple times and received public support from Erdogan in January 2019, when Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly declared him a usurper following the disputed results of the 2018 presidential election.

At the time, Erdogan called Maduro and told him: “Brother, you should stand firm. We are with you.”

Maduro was also one of the first leaders to call Erdogan in July 2016 after the attempted military coup against him, helping pave the way for a burgeoning relationship that would eventually include nearly $1bn in trade turnover by 2023, particularly in the mining and gold sectors.

Strong ties between Turkey and Venezuela 

People familiar with the upcoming visit told MEE that Rodriguez still remembers Turkey’s support over the years and is open to deepening trade and investment through new initiatives.

One person familiar with Venezuela said Ankara may be particularly interested in the country's oil and gold sectors.

The Turkish and Venezuelan energy ministers signed two separate memorandums of understanding in February 2024 covering oil, natural gas and mining. Later that year, Maduro told the media that the two countries had also signed an agreement for Turkey to extract gold from fields in southern Venezuela.

However, heavy US sanctions on Venezuela’s energy and mining sectors prevented both countries from developing further initiatives in these areas.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration eased some of those sanctions, potentially opening the way for Turkish public and private sector investment.

After Maduro was removed from power, Rodriguez took over with the blessing of US President Donald Trump. She has since overseen an expansion of US interests in Venezuela, including those of oil company Chevron.

Around 2019, Turkey was importing significant amounts of gold in exchange for goods exports. However, the arrangement came under scrutiny by the US government, reducing the scale of the trade over time.