The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US.
The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no reason for the decision. Norway does not have an embassy in Caracas and handles local affairs through its embassy in the capital of neighboring Colombia.
Photo: EPA
“This is regrettable. Despite the fact that we have different views on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will work toward that,” a ministry spokesperson said.
The announcement occurred just days after the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy in the South American nation. Machado dedicated the prize to US President Donald Trump.
“The Nobel Prize is independent of the Norwegian government and when it comes to questions about the prize, we refer to the Nobel Committee,” the ministry spokesperson said.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary of the award body, said that the Venezuelan embassy’s closure was not an issue for the committee.
“For the committee, the task at hand is to select the right Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Maria Corina Machado is certainly a worthy winner,” he said.
The Venezuelan embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to an e-mail request for comment. Phone calls to the two numbers listed on the Venezuelan embassy’s Web site, made outside of normal business hours, did not ring and were not answered.
Caracas said it was instead setting up new embassies in “two sister nations, strategic allies in the anti-colonial fight and in the resistance against hegemonic pressures.”
It added that these new embassies would serve to launch joint projects involving agriculture, energy, education, mining and other common interests.
The embassy closures with the two US allies followed weeks of escalating tensions between Caracas and Washington.
Venezuela has called on the UN for support over several deadly US military strikes on vessels off its Caribbean coast, which Washington alleges were carrying drugs. Some US allies on the UN Security Council called for de-escalation and dialogue.
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