Venezuelan President Maduro to visit China

AFP  :
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will visit China from Friday to Thursday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said.

Beijing has close relations with the internationally isolated oil-rich nation and is one of Caracas’s main creditors.

China has backed Venezuela’s warnings against what it calls foreign interference in the country, whose economy has been wracked for years by crisis.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro Moros will pay a state visit to China from September 8 to 14,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez visited Shanghai and Beijing this week, meeting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, in one of the most high-level visits by officials from Caracas to China in years.

“China and Venezuela have forged an unbreakable, ironclad friendship, and China firmly supports Venezuela in safeguarding its national independence and national dignity,” Wang said.

The visit was aimed at securing fresh oil investment from Beijing and discussing a possible joint venture between Venezuelan and Chinese petroleum firms, Bloomberg reported.

Caracas has long sought help from Beijing in bolstering its crisis-hit economy. Maduro last visited Beijing in 2018 — his tenth trip to China — where he praised President Xi’s vision of a “common destiny for humanity”.