Russia and Venezuela need to combine efforts to lift oil prices, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, but refused to spell out any specific action, including output cuts.
Maduro, who met Putin in Beijing after attending a Chinese military parade to mark 70 years since the end of World War II in Asia, spoke of some “initiatives” agreed between the pair, but did not specify what those might be.
“Both parties noted during the meeting that such unstable oil prices are not in the interests of the two countries and, of course, the countries should integrate their efforts in terms of coordination to facilitate a boost in oil prices,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “However, President Putin drew attention to the fact that there could be no direct actions, this is a market process. There are lots of factors which are having an impact and that should be taken into consideration very carefully.”
Maduro said he and Putin had made some progress.
“The initiatives will be known once they are in full swing,” state news agency AVN quoted Maduro as saying to Russian television network RT, without providing further details.
Venezuela is a member of OPEC, but Russia is not.
OPEC’s relatively wealthy members in the Gulf drove the group’s strategy shift last year to allow prices to fall to defend market share.
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