“Venezuela Relations with India have enormous potential. Within the framework of bilaterality, there is a commitment to mutual respect and deepening cooperation in the Global South.”
India and Venezuela have been historical bilateral partners in multiple fields of cooperation. How do you expect to deepen these ties?
I believe that contact between senior officials is essential in order to increase bilateral cooperation in multiple fields and sectors. Therefore, I propose to encourage the visit to India by Venezuelan personalities who can effectively promote the creation and implementation of cooperation programs those are beneficial to the population of both nations. And what could be better than receiving a delegation led by President Nicolás Maduro, so that it can meet and promote bilateral cooperation at the highest level? At the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela we are working hard to achieve this goal.
Due to its location in the tropics, Venezuela offers some secrets for tourists who visit the country. Can you share some of the best places that tourists should look for in Venezuela?
Many tourist places in Venezuela have not been secret for a long time because they are famous worldwide, such as the highest waterfall in the world, the Angel Falls; Margarita Island; Archipelago of Los Roques; Bolívar Peak in the Venezuelan Andes; the extensive region of the plains; the colonial centre of the town of Coro; Ciudad Bolívar in front of the Orinoco River; Canaima, Morrocoy and Mochima National Parks, among others. There are many places that offer varied geographies to satisfy the different tastes and preferences of each of the tourists who visit Venezuela.
In August 2023, the Executive Vice President and Minister of Finance of Venezuela, Ms. Delcy Rodríguez, visited India. What were some of the key results of their visit?
In addition to the interviews Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez Gómez held with some of the main political figures of the Republic of India, there were many contacts in the commercial area that were established within the framework of the IX CII Conclave India – Latin America and the Caribbean, to which we had the honour of being invited and in which the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had a leading role, with a large delegation led by the second largest authority in the country and that counted among its members the Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil Pinto, and the Minister of People’s Power for Science and Technology, Gabriela Jiménez, in addition to several Deputy Ministers of the economic and trade sector. The Vice-President also made a very interesting visit to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). We hope that this high-level approach will soon bear fruits in concrete actions and initiatives in favour of the progress of both peoples and nations.
Venezuela is one of the emerging destinations for Indian tourists. What are the steps, how is the visa policy that the Venezuelan government is adopting to attract more Indian travellers to Venezuela?
The Consular Section of the Embassy of Venezuela is ready to answer the visa applications of all people (tourists and businessmen) who want to visit our country being for recreation or business. Applicants should go to the email of the Consular Section, consular@embaveneindia.com, where they will gladly be given all the indications regarding the documents they must submit for evaluation and subsequent processing of the visa. Once its issuance is approved, an appointment is made for the applicant to go for the visa stamp on the corresponding passport.
Venezuela commemorates its struggle for independence on July 5. How does the Venezuelan Embassy in India plan to celebrate Independence Day this year?
We will welcome with great hospitality all the good and supportive friends of Venezuela in a commemorative event that will have as guests political personalities and from the economic, social and cultural sectors of India, in addition to the nationals who make up the Venezuelan community in India. All of them will honour us with their presence on a night of celebration of history and the pride of being Venezuelan, with a lot of music and joy. Likewise, on the morning of that day, July 5, we will place the traditional floral offering before the statue of the Father of the Fatherland, the Liberator Simón Bolívar, located at Simón Bolívar Marg, in New Delhi.
The Venezuelan government aims to diversify its economy by attracting foreign investment in multiple sectors. What are some of the key sectors for Indian investors to invest in the Venezuelan economy?
Being a country with infinite possibilities and opportunities for productive and sustainable investment, Venezuela has been promoting, especially through the International Centre for Productive Investment (CIIP), investments in all sectors, mainly in the traditional energy sector, remembering that Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of heavy crude oil in the world, with 303 billion barrels, as well as the largest reserves of light crude in the entire western hemisphere; the mining sector, by playing an important role in the extraction of gold, diamonds, iron, coal, bauxite and other non-metallic minerals; in tourism, when having immense natural potential, such as its coasts in the Caribbean Sea, which exceed in extension all neighbouring islands. This makes it an attractive destination for international tourism.
I also highlight the industrial sector, with approximately 270 industrial parks, offering investment opportunities in heavy industry, characterised by a strategic complex of aluminium, iron and other minerals; and the forestry sector, for having the Uverito forest, between the States of Anzoátegui and Monagas, which is the largest Caribbean pine plantation in the world, with more than 250,000 hectares. Moreover, I would like to mention also the agricultural sector, since the nation has a proven capacity for primary and transformative production in a large area of fertile multipurpose lands and island territory; in the same way, the fishing and aquaculture sector, being one of the most important fishing countries in the Caribbean, has vast resources in both marine and river environments.
Indo-Venezuelan trade is marked by the presence of a considerable number of companies from each nation in the other. Can you shed some light on the companies of both countries that currently harbour commercial links in the other?
Relations with India have enormous potential. Within the framework of bilaterality, there is a commitment to mutual respect and deepening cooperation in the Global South.
Many companies have been expressing, for some years, the interest in establishing or restoring their commercial links with Venezuela, especially in the industrial, mining, energy and pharmaceutical sectors. Some have started new operations, others have resumed them, all of them with the commitment to increase the quality of life of our brotherly peoples.
India has a special place for you given its own spiritual connection with this country. We would love to know your connection and about your visits to India over the years.
Certainly, India occupies a very special place in my life due to my spiritual connection with this country. In 1985 visited for the first time the city of Puttaparthi, in Andhra Pradesh, to meet Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, considered the Avatar of the Era. From that date until the present, 2024, I have not stopped visiting India for a single year. So much so, that in 1989 my first son, Dante Gabriel, entered the schools of Puttaparthi and that same year I gave birth in the small hospital of Ashram to my daughter, whom Sai Baba named Prema.
This internal experience with India has allowed me to see life in a different way, evolve spiritually and know that human values centred on truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence are the true way forward, and that acquiring a higher awareness of who we are and where we are going is the fundamental question that we must ask ourselves when we have been allowed the grace to own a human body. I love this sacred land of Bharat as my second homeland. Om Sai Ram.
Indian culture is very beloved, admired and practised by Venezuelans. As a result, Venezuelans have a positive attitude towards India and many of them regularly travel to the country or have the desire to visit it. How do you expect to foster closer cultural ties between the two nations?
Venezuelans are very identified with Indian culture, especially with the learning of yoga and Hindu religion. Likewise, they like to come every year to visit the different regions of this sacred land of Bharat. As Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to India, I strive every day to motivate and increase cultural ties between both nations, encouraging and promoting knowledge of culture of the two nations, especially in the case of India, dances, music, yoga, sacred books, such as the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana and the Sanskrit language; and in the case of Venezuela, literature, plastic arts, cinematography, gastronomy, natural beauties, tourist attractions and the great human quality of its people; as well as fraternity, humanism and the service capacity of both peoples.
Would you like to send a message to the readers of “Envoy Excellency”?
I send with a lot of love to all the readers of “Envoy Excellency”, as well as to the management and all the staff of this prestigious magazine, a message of gratitude for allowing us to share with our brothers from India, through its pages, a moment as important as the celebration of July 5, Day of the Signing of the Act of Independence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We pray to God that “Envoy Excellency” continue its successful work of disseminating the knowledge of all the countries of the world, thereby promoting a better understanding amongst the respective people.