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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday held talks on forging a long-term energy partnership and collaboration in pharmaceuticals and critical minerals, even as the Indian side flagged the issue of repatriating a state-run firm’s dividends from the South American country.
Rodríguez is on a four-day visit to India with a delegation that includes five ministers, marking her first trip to the country since she became interim head of the Venezuelan government after US troops captured and abducted President Nicolas Maduro during an operation in Caracas in January.
The two leaders did not make customary media statements after their talks at Hyderabad House, and Modi said in a social media post that they discussed the expansion of cooperation in energy, critical minerals, technology, agriculture and healthcare. “As a valued partner in Latin America, our close cooperation with Venezuela holds immense importance for the Global South,” he said.
Rodríguez is visiting New Delhi at a time when Venezuela has become the country’s third largest oil supplier, after Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India, the third largest oil importer, has diversified energy purchases to compensate for supply disruptions due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The discussions between Modi and Rodríguez focused on forging a long-term energy partnership, Rudrendra Tandon, secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, told a media briefing. There is “perfect complementarity” between Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, and India, a growing consumer of energy, to work together in exploration and refining.
According to Tandon, Rodríguez said Venezuela “looks at India as a preferred partner” as it will be a stable buyer of energy for many years, and Modi said India looks forward to building an energy relationship covering upstream and downstream activities.
The Indian government is “aggressively” seeking new sources of crude oil to ensure India’s energy security because of the developments in West Asia and Venezuela is “very much part of our plan”, Tandon said.
At a time when the Trump administration in the US controls proceeds from Venezuela’s energy sales through bank accounts administered by the US treasury department, Tandon said payments for energy purchases “will be done in the way that the companies want”.
“So far as the payments issue is concerned, Venezuela is undergoing a transition period. There are arrangements in place,” he said, noting that Indian public and private sector companies, which operate at the global level, will have to take into account existing payment methods for any economic activity in Venezuela.
The Indian side also raised the issue of state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), which has equity participation in two oil exploration projects in Venezuela, being unable to repatriate more than $500 million in dividends from the South American country.
“This is very much part of the discussions we are having with Venezuela…It’s a public sector company’s money, but it is an issue that is on the table, and they are very sensitive to this issue,” Tandon said.
The two sides discussed possible cooperation in pharmaceuticals, especially the ability of Indian manufacturers to provide high-quality generic drugs at a low cost, and also focused on the mining sector, including critical minerals, gold and diamonds. “There was a discussion on how to assess the potential reserves that [Venezuela has and] that is very much part of the follow-up activities we will be undertaking,” Tandon said.
Tandon acknowledged that the two leaders had a “very frank conversation” on the political transition in Venezuela but declined to go into details. “We all know there was a transition in Venezuela. But we are working with a government that is friendly, that wants a partnership with India. We want to reciprocate that,” he said.
Besides visiting a pharmaceutical company in New Delhi and an automobile facility operated by Tata, Rodríguez will visit Reliance Industries’s Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, the world’s single largest oil refining complex with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day. Reliance Industries is currently the main buyer of Venezuela’s dense crude.
Rodríguez is also expected to make a private visit to Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh to visit the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba.
Rezaul H Laskar is the Foreign Affairs Editor at Hindustan Times. His interests include movies and music.
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