Description: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, in Istanbul where the leaders discussed strengthening their bilateral ties and mutual partnership. Erdogan stated that Turkey would enhance cooperation with Venezuela in bilateral trade, energy and mining sectors in the upcoming period, accentuating the cooperation in the energy field. The meeting follows close cooperation between the two countries within the last 10 years, since Erdogan and Maduro cultivated close political ties and signed several agreements focusing on Venezuela’s mining sector.
Impact: Venezuela is likely continuing to cultivate international ties with familiar strategic partners in order to gain global industry and political exposure. Rodriguez is likely attempting to solidify her position as President of the country in the long – term, faced with growing popularity of the oppositional candidate Maria Corina Machado. Considering historically close ties, both countries are likely expected to devise deeper ties within the energy and trade sectors, with Turkey potentially providing Venezuela with access to its growing domestic defense sector. The meeting likely emphasizes Venezuela’s current investment attractiveness since the US has lifted the majority of sanctions while Venezuela managed to restore cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank. Turkey is likely one of the candidate countries to gain favorable conditions within Venezuela’s energy sector which would eventually decrease Turkey’s energy dependence on Russia and the Middle East.