Overview
- Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met Venezuela’s Ecological Mining Development Minister Héctor Silva on November 14–15 on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam.
- Venezuela conveyed interest in widening economic engagement beyond crude, including cooperation in critical minerals and attracting Indian investment.
- Goyal urged reactivating the India–Venezuela Joint Committee Mechanism, which has not convened in about a decade.
- He suggested Venezuela accept the Indian Pharmacopeia to facilitate pharmaceutical exports and highlighted scope for deeper collaboration in the automobile sector.
- Citing ONGC Videsh’s ongoing projects as an operating foothold, India said it will engage domestic businesses to explore Venezuelan opportunities, with trade having fallen from $6.397 billion in 2019–20 to $96 million in 2023–24.