Happy to see India cooperating on Venezuela: US

As the Trump administration tightened its noose over the authoritarian regime of Venezuela, a top American diplomat said there has been a considerable amount of cooperation from India on the US efforts to restrict the export of Venezuelan oil. “I would say that we have had contacts with Indian companies and with the government of India, and that we have found there to be a very considerable amount of cooperation, which we are very happy to see,” US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams said.

The Trump administration has recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as oil-rich country’s interim leader against President Nicolas Maduro.

As part of its effort to squeeze the Maduro regime, the US had asked countries, including India, across the world to stop importing oil from Venezuela or face American sanctions.

Several Indian companies have stopped importing oil from the country.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has appreciated Indian cooperation in this regard.

Early this month, the Venezuelan Oil Ministry had said that it has suspended export of oil to India.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had expressed hope that India will supports its efforts in Venezuela by not purchasing oil from the "authoritarian" Maduro regime. The issue was discussed in a meeting with the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, Pompeo told reporters at a news conference in Washington, without providing insight into it. "We are asking the same thing of India as we are of every country: Do not be the economic lifeline for the Maduro regime.  So we talked about (Venezuela) I certainly won't characterize the conversations; they're private conversations," Pompeo said in response to a question.

"In the same way that India has been incredibly supportive of our efforts in Iran, I'm confident that they too understand the real threat to the Venezuelan people. We had a good conversation around that," Pompeo said.

At a news conference, Pompeo said the nations that support Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are, by the nature of this "illegitimate" regime, carrying out the very foreign interventionism of which they accuse others.

"Today, the United States is drawing a clear line between those who aid the forces of repression and those who give life to the Venezuelan people's democratic dreams. There is no ambiguity here about the truth," he said.

Similar kind of warning to other nations was issued by US National Security Adviser John Bolton.