Neither Maduro nor Guaidó! The diplomatic clash between USA and Russia

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The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, and their ideological differences were decisive in the meeting

On March 18 and 19, Rome, Italy, witnessed the meeting between the delegations of the United States and Russia, one of the most important in recent months. Knowing that there is a political clash between these two countries, this meeting represents another step in the attempts to improve their relations.

Leer en español: ¡Ni Maduro ni Guaidó! El choque diplomático entre E.E.U.U y Rusia

Venezuela: Presidency or regime?

However, both Elliott Abrams, US manager, and the Russian Deputy Foreign Vice-Minister, Sergey Ryabkov, had only one purpose: to discuss the positions of each of their countries in the face of the crisis in Venezuela, and possible solutions or agreements to which they would be willing to go to improve this situation efficiently.

However, these conversations were not at all simple, because it is not a secret that the thoughts of these two nations are very different, especially when defining what the legitimate government of the South American country is: The United States defends swiftly the interim presidency of Juan Guaidó, while Russia does the same for the management of Nicolás Maduro.

That is why, to avoid international frictions, from the beginning it was decided to completely remove some political bias from this meeting, starting with the meeting place. "Italy had been chosen as a meeting place because it was considered a 'neutral' country since Rome does not recognize the oath of Nicolás Maduro or the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó", ABC newspaper reported.

Without agreements

Consequently, the differences present in both delegations meant that the talks were taken as a simple diplomatic process between the United States and Russia, as no major joint decisions were reached.

As detailed by El Comercio (Peru), the US representative said that although it is not the first option, military intervention is an alternative that the United States has put on the table, in order to end what Americans have called as the "regime" of Nicolás Maduro.

Of course, these statements did not strike very well in the Russian delegate, who said, according to statements made by the magazine Portafolio (Colombia), that "Russia not only strongly opposes the use of military force in the context of a foreign intervention but against the methods of pressure of the so-called 'low intensity'".

These ideological clashes were relevant for politicians to decide to end the meeting almost immediately because neither Russia would accept betraying the relations they have with the Maduro government, let alone the United States would recognize as legitimate the power it has. "Who has the title of President?" Is the question that still needs to be answered.

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Political advances

Even so, not everything was bad in the meeting, because, although no great agreements or decisions were reached between the two nations, it was possible to reach a conclusion that all the parties shared: Venezuela is experiencing a humanitarian crisis that must be important.

"They were useful, they were substantive, they were serious. We were very much in agreement with the depth of the crisis in Venezuela. We are very concerned about the nature and severity of the humanitarian crisis, "Abrams said.

For his part, Ryabkov said that in his country they are "willing to continue the dialogue with the US in this regard (Venezuela) because the seriousness of the situation does not give us room for error. We must understand the intentions of each party as accurately as possible".

Finally, the Russian deputy minister acknowledged that "we understood his vision better and felt the pulse of the American position"; words similar to those of the American representative, who stressed that the talks were "positive, serious and substantive", adding that "it was an exchange of views and not negotiations on the future of Venezuela."

LatinAmerican Post | Christopher Ramírez

Translated from "¡Ni Maduro ni Guaidó! El choque diplomático entre E.E.U.U y Rusia"