The bilateral ties between Türkiye and Venezuela are very good and the close cooperation has been built on solid foundations, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said Tuesday. He was in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to attend the inauguration of the Türkiye-Venezuela Trade Delegation and B2B Meetings with business representatives in the Latin American country.

In his speech at the opening session, Muş thanked the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Venezuelan authorities for their contribution to the development of mutual commercial relations and the organization of the business forum.

Reiterating that they celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, Muş said, "The deep-rooted relations we have with friendly and brotherly Venezuela indicate that our close cooperation today is built on solid foundations."

Stating that six important agreements have been signed between the two countries, Muş said, "Many mutual official visits have been made under the leadership of our presidents, and as a result of these efforts, relations between the two countries have moved to a different dimension."

Last April, the third meeting of the Türkiye-Venezuela Joint Cooperation Commission was held. Muş said that cooperation was established in many fields from trade to tourism, agriculture and health.

He also added that the unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela were unfair and that such sanctions affect the Venezuelan people in an extremely negative manner. "This also harms third countries and free trade. Our country will stand by Venezuela as it has before," he said.

Muş stated that Türkiye hopes that contact between the U.S. and Venezuela, which started last year, will lead to the normalization of relations between the two countries and the removal of unfair sanctions that were imposed by Washington.

Bilateral trade

The minister went on to say that Türkiye, which believes in global responsibilities and thinks that wealth should be shared more fairly, is taking decisive steps to improve its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean region. "We are taking concrete steps in relations with Venezuela. We are also taking steps to draw the legal framework of our economic relations with mutual encouragement of investments," he said.

The mutual trade, which stood at $152 million in 2019, reached approximately $1.1 billion last year, the minister informed.

Noting that more than 500 companies established commercial relations with Venezuela in 2022, Muş said: "Our country has risen to the rank of second in 2021 in the countries to which Venezuela exports the most. Despite difficulties caused by unilateral sanctions, the pandemic and global problems, we achieved this. We will increase our bilateral trade volume in the short term in line with the target set by our president, which is $3 billion to $5 billion in the medium term."

"We attach importance to diversifying our commercial relations in all areas of the economy, from agriculture to tourism, energy and logistics," he added.