Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale discussed the situation in Venezuela and Venezuelan oil purchases with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo during their meeting on Monday, Mr Pompeo told the press at a briefing in the afternoon.
Asked if there was a discussion on India’s oil purchases Mr. Pompeo said, “Yeah, so we’re 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 — I certainly won’t characterise the conversations; they’re private conversations. But I’m very confident — in the same way that India has been incredibly supportive of our efforts on Iran, I’m confident that they, too, understand the real threat to the Venezuelan people. And so we had a good conversation around that.” India and seven other countries were given a six month exemption from U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran and allowed to purchase a limited quantity of Iranian oil without facing sanctions. Mr Gokhale’s discussions in Washington are expected to cover the renewal of the sanction exemption.
Twitter warning
Regarding Venezuela, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton had warned India and other countries on Twitter last month against purchasing oil from Venezuela in response to Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo making a trip to India to pitch for more oil sales. “Nations and firms that support Maduro’s theft of Venezuelan resources will not be forgotten,” Mr Bolton had tweeted above a link to a report on Mr. Quevedo’s visit to India.
