The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the acting head of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, have held a meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Summit (COP31), which is taking place in the Turkish city of Antalya. During the meeting, both leaders agreed to "fully resume bilateral relations at the highest level," after the period of diplomatic tension stemming from the Venezuelan electoral crisis of July 2024.
This meeting represents the first meeting between the two leaders since Rodríguez was appointed to take charge of filling the power vacuum left by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, after his detention by the United States in January 2026.
"Lula reaffirmed his determination to strengthen relations with all South American countries in his next term," the Presidency of Brazil indicated in an official statement, which also specifies that both "agreed to maintain contact in order to continue dialogue on possible areas of cooperation".
Among those possible areas is the strengthening of investment in the oil sector. In this context, Lula da Silva has raised the possibility that the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, make an official visit to Caracas.
For years, Lula was one of the few leaders in the region who, to some extent, showed support for Maduro’s Government. However, in recent times he had distanced himself, especially after the political crisis triggered in Venezuela as a result of the presidential elections of July 2024.
At the same time, the Brazilian president condemned the military operation launched by the United States to stop Maduro, warning that it represented a dangerous precedent of foreign interference and a threat to the national sovereignty of the countries in the region.