BEIJING, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro will visit China from today, Beijing said, marking renewed engagement between the two countries as China’s ties sour with Western capitals.
Energy investment and debt repayment issues are likely to be a focus of the Sept. 8-14 visit.
China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, is Venezuela’s largest creditor and a major player in the country’s oil industry, which has the world’s largest proven reserves.
Maduro’s arrival will follow meetings between a Venezuelan delegation, including the country’s vice president and oil minister, and Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing and Shanghai earlier this week，according to China’s foreign ministry.
The two countries “closely coordinate and cooperate in international and regional affairs, firmly support each other, and jointly oppose hegemonism and unilateralism,” China’s Vice President Han Zheng told the Venezuelan delegation, according to a report from Chinese state media outlet CCTV on Friday.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a post on X on Friday that the two governments were strengthening relations and cooperation in favour of peace.
Washington and Caracas have long been at odds though the Biden administration has made overtures toward easing sanctions against Venezuela. Beijing’s decision to host Maduro coincides with a G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend.
Maduro last visited China in 2018, when he met with Xi in Beijing.
Despite U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil, between January and August this year, China imported around 390,000 barrels per day of crude from the country, totalling roughly 12.9 million metric tons, according to data from commodities consultancy Vortexa. Most Venezuelan cargoes are transferred via third countries such as Malaysia.
China reported no direct crude imports from Venezuela in official customs data last year or thus far this year.
Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) 601857.SS holds a 40% stake in the Sinovensa project in the vast Orinoco belt alongside Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). CNPC stopped carrying Venezuelan oil in August 2019 after the Trump administration tightened sanctions against the South American exporter, though other Chinese entities have continued to make shipments.
Venezuela is also heavily indebted to China following a $50 billion oil-for-loan deal agreed in 2007 by then President Hugo Chavez.
A rout in oil prices and declining output from Venezuelan fields meant that the cash-strapped government was forced to ask for grace periods on debt owed to China in 2016.
In 2020, the Maduro administration and Chinese banks again agreed a grace period for some $19 billion of Chinese debt, according to Reuters reporting.