Venezuela leader to meet Erdogan on surprise Istanbul visit

ISTANBUL: Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday after arriving in Istanbul on a surprise visit, officials said.
Rodriguez, who has led Venezuela since US forces captured former socialist president Nicolas Maduro in January, arrived in Istanbul late on Sunday after a five-day visit to India.
Her arrival was announced on X by Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, who said she had come at Erdogan’s invitation.
Rodriguez and Erdogan were to meet at 5:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus, the presidency said.
Turkiye has strong ties with oil-rich Venezuela, and Erdogan had close ties with the governments of late socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro.
In recent years, Turkiye has signed a number of agreements with Venezuela in the fields of defense, energy, tourism and agriculture.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but years of corruption, underinvestment and mismanagement have seen a dramatic collapse in production.
The situation worsened with a US oil embargo in 2019, although Washington eased the sanctions after Maduro’s capture and Rodriguez has since pushed through reforms opening up the oil industry to private capital.