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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to Caracas on Monday to sign cooperation agreements with his Venezuelan counterpart and ally Nicolas Maduro, facing a serious economic crisis and regional isolation. .
During his first public activities, the Turkish president laid an offering of flowers in the tomb of Venezuelan Simón Bolívar, then participated in a working meeting with Maduro.
The two leaders plan to meet in the afternoon at the presidential palace of Miraflores.
Erdogan went to the National Pantheon of downtown Caracas with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Vice President of the Economy, Tareck El Aissami, who received him on arrival in the country Sunday night. after attending the G20 summit in Argentina.
Relations between Venezuela and Turkey have tightened in recent years, especially as the United States has increased pressure on Maduro through financial and individual sanctions.
Erdogan took advantage of the visit to criticize "the attacks and sabotage" against the oil country and said that "Turkey is on the side of Venezuela in this area".
Not to mention the United States, the Turkish president insisted that "trade restrictions and sanctions are unacceptable" and warned against "new instability".
"You can not punish an entire people for resolving political disagreements, you know that, from the bitter experiences of the past," said Erdogan, according to a translation by an interpreter, in a professional forum .
Ankara also has tense relations with the White House, which calls for the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gülen, accused by Erdogan of orchestrating the failed coup of 2016.
The rapprochement between Erdogan and Maduro is also intensified in its context. the serious Venezuelan political and socio-economic crisis.
While the vital production of oil is shaken, the socialist leader calls on Turkey and other international partners to invest in the exploration of a vast mineral reserve, Arco del Orinoco (south) , with deposits of gold, diamonds and coltan, others
According to Caracas, the non-oil trade of the two countries is close to 800 million US dollars this year, a not insignificant figure given its serious liquidity problems.
El Aissami also announced Monday that Turkish businessmen were planning to invest 4.5 billion euros in the OPEC member country.
Maduro claims to have great admiration for Erdogan, especially for the iron fist he's applied after the coup attempt.
On July 8, Maduro traveled to Turkey to attend Erdogan's inauguration in power since 2003 for a new five-year term.
The head of the Venezuelan state badured on this occasion that he would have had talks with investors and businessmen.
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