BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2019) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that Venezuelan officials had returned from Norway where they were engaged in dialogue with the opposition, but refused to reveal the details of the contacts.
Oslo hosted talks between the representatives Maduro and democratic opposition earlier this week, as confirmed by the Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva, Jorge Valero. A source close to the talks told Sputnik on Thursday that the Venezuelan governmental commission, including Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez and the Miranda state governor, Hector Rodriguez, was in Norway searching for "rapprochement" with the opposition. However, opposition leader Juan Guaido has insisted that the contacts in Oslo were not negotiations but only an attempt to establish the dialogue.
"Minister Jorge Rodriguez and governor Hector Rodriguez returned from Norway this morning and I have invited them. I need to inform the country with all the responsibility that they headed the Venezuelan delegation in the emerging dialogue with the Venezuelan opposition in order to create a peaceful agenda for the country ... I will not tell you more because it is only the first step and we are bound by obligations. We respect rules of the game," Maduro said in an address, whose video was published on Twitter on Friday.
Maduro also thanked Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide for her efforts in establishing peace in Venezuela.
"I believe in peace and dialogue ... And I would like to ask for the support of the people of Venezuela for achieving peace and consensus," Maduro said.
The situation in Venezuela remains tense since January when Guaido proclaimed himself an interim president. Washington and its allies endorsed Guaido and called on Maduro to step down. Moreover, the United States seized billions of Dollars' worth of Venezuelan oil assets.
Maduro, in turn, has accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install Guaido as its puppet and take over Venezuela's natural resources.
Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey and a number of other countries have voiced their support for Maduro as the only legitimate president of Venezuela.
Notably, Norway was among EU countries that have not endorsed Guaido as the Venezuelan interim president.
