French President Emmanuel Macron and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro exchanged briefly on Monday in the corridors of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
In the short video provided by the Venezuelan presidency, the two men exchange courtesies and then the French president declares: “I would love for us to be able to talk longer, if we could engage in useful bilateral work for the region.”
“President, I have it after this sequence. I will call you back,” he added a few moments later.
A discussion that may surprise, since in the wake of the United States, France never officially recognized the re-election of Nicolás Maduro for a second term in 2018, and described the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president. But the weight of the latter has dropped considerably since then.
Reopened dialogue between the two countries
During the discussion between the two presidents, Nicolás Maduro considered that “France must play a positive role” in Latin America.
In June, during the G7 summit in Germany, the French presidency, concerned about the energy crisis, had mentioned “resources in other places that must be explored”, looking at the production of Iran and Venezuela, and considering that “Venezuelan oil must be able to be put back on the market”.
Nicolás Maduro had immediately invited French companies, launching on television: “President Macron! Venezuela is ready to receive all French companies that want to come to produce oil and gas.”
The meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Nicolás Maduro at COP27 did not fail to make Jean-Luc Mélenchon react on his Twitter account. the
“Very friendly meeting of Emmanuel Macron and Nicolás Maduro in Sharm el-Sheikh,” he remarked, before adding: “The need for oil makes people educated.”
Indeed, the former presidential candidate has repeatedly endorsed Nicolás Maduro, calling his opponents “coup plotters.”
Source: BFM TV
