ANKARA (Realist English). Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, plans to visit Turkey on an official trip, Middle East Eye reports, citing sources. On June 8, she is expected to hold talks in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The main focus will presumably be on opportunities for Ankara in Venezuela’s oil and gold mining sectors, as US sanctions are eased.
Visit Amid Power Change in Caracas
Rodríguez has been in India since last week, discussing energy, trade and investment with Narendra Modi’s government. The Istanbul stop is expected to be the next leg of her trip.
Turkey and Venezuela maintain strong political ties. Erdoğan had a close rapport with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was abducted by US forces in January 2026, taken to a detention centre in New York and is now facing federal criminal charges.
After Maduro was removed from power, Rodríguez took over with the blessing of US President Donald Trump. Since then, she has overseen an expansion of US interests in Venezuela, including those of oil company Chevron.
History of Ankara‑Caracas Relations
Maduro visited Turkey multiple times and received public support from Erdoğan in January 2019, when the opposition‑led National Assembly declared him a usurper following the disputed results of the 2018 presidential election. At the time, Erdoğan called Maduro and told him: “Brother, you should stand firm. We are with you.”
Maduro was also one of the first leaders to call Erdoğan in July 2016 after the attempted military coup in Turkey, helping pave the way for a burgeoning relationship that by 2023 had reached nearly $1 billion in trade turnover, mainly in mining and gold.
Oil, Gold and Sanctions
Sources familiar with the upcoming visit told MEE that Rodríguez remembers Turkey’s support over the years and is open to deepening trade and investment through new initiatives. Ankara may be particularly interested in Venezuela’s oil and gold sectors.
In February 2024, the energy ministers of the two countries signed two separate memoranda of understanding covering oil, natural gas and mining. Later that year, Maduro told the media that the two countries had also signed an agreement for Turkish companies to extract gold from fields in southern Venezuela.
However, heavy US sanctions on Venezuela’s energy and mining sectors prevented further initiatives in these areas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration eased some of those sanctions, potentially opening the way for Turkish public and private sector investment.
Around 2019, Turkey was importing significant amounts of gold from Venezuela in exchange for goods exports. However, the arrangement came under scrutiny by the US government, reducing the scale of such trade over time.
