The Venezuelan president thanked Russia for help and called Vladimir Putin ‘the leader of the new world’.
The presidents have met at the international forum ‘Russian Energy Week – 2017’.
“Thank you life that there is such a leader, the leader of the country with a fast-developing economy – Vladimir Putin. We do not need to ask Russia for help, we already have it, Russia is helping us,” said Nicolas Maduro.
The presidents are highly likely to discuss the loan restructuring issue. Over the past years, Venezuela has been undergoing a deep social and political crisis; the country is financially squeezed as well.
On Thursday, Nicolas Maduro will make an official visit to Minsk. The Venezuelan president will take part in the opening ceremony of a Simon Bolivar monument in the Simon Bolivar public garden.
Minsk and Caracas are maintaining mainly political relations. Economic cooperation between Belarus and Venezuela have not brought the results expected.
From the very beginning, independent economists criticized the project on delivering Venezuelan petroleum to Belarusian refineries saying it was loss-making. Belarusian officials have never revealed how much Minsk paid for the Venezuelan oil.
Several Belarusian construction projects in Venezuela were frozen after the Latin American country faced a deep economic crisis. Anti-government protests in Venezuela are still in progress. At least 125 people were killed; more than five hundred people have been put in prison for political reasons.
