Shchetinin said, “We already met at the Foreign Ministry and will have further meetings, during which we discussed different aspects of our cooperation, future cooperation, to update the agenda, and identify areas of mutual interest in these new conditions facing the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

This is the first visit by a Russian government official after the United States attacked Caracas on January 3, in which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were kidnapped and taken to New York to face trial on several drug trafficking charges.

During his visit to Uruguay last week, Shchetinin stated that his country is willing to strengthen cooperation with Venezuela, “in the ways and to the extent that the Venezuelan leadership is prepared for under the current circumstances.”

Maduro and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed a strategic partnership agreement in Moscow on May 8, 2025, establishing an agenda to reinforce cooperation in sectors such as the economy, energy, mining, and other strategic areas.

jdt/iff/mem/gfa