A month after Maduro abduction, Venezuela moves to reassure China its investments are safe

Venezuela will ensure China’s energy, trade and investment interests in the country are secure, Caracas’ envoy to Beijing said, amid growing concern in Beijing that the US’ unprecedented assault on Venezuela may complicate its ties with the resource-rich country and the wider region.

“China and Venezuela are trusted partners who share mutual trust. Both nations are sovereign states, and their bilateral relationship shall remain unaffected by the interference of other countries,” Remigio Ceballos, Venezuela’s ambassador to China, told a press conference in the Chinese capital on Tuesday.

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How Maduro’s abduction is set to change Latin America

Tuesday marked the one-month anniversary of United States special forces breaching the Venezuelan president’s fortified compound, capturing Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and seizing the Venezuelan oil industry, which is the country’s economic engine.

While describing the abduction of Maduro as a “warning to the entire world”, Ceballos tried to play down the impact of the US actions on Venezuela’s ties with China, a close partner of Maduro and a major buyer of Venezuela’s oil.

“No, there is no government in the world capable of breaking our [relations] between China and Venezuela.”

“Chinese enterprises operating in Venezuela and investments from other nations continue to progress normally. This applies not only to the petroleum sector but to all areas of cooperation with Venezuela,” he told reporters.

The ambassador also dismissed reports suggesting the US would set the price for all oil transactions between China and Venezuela.

South China Morning Post