During an interview President Maduro: 'We have to keep improving, expanding, and adapting relations with China and keep moving forward. That is my message to President Xi Jinping.'

President Nicolas Maduro says he’s “determined to expand and liberate Venezuela’s production” in the face of the U.S. economic blockades being placed on the South American nation. Maduro tells Chinese media his country is “resisting” the sanctions by growing the nation’s agricultural, oil and mining sectors.

“We are determined to expand and liberate the productive forces of Venezuela, recovering macroeconomic equilibrium and, above all, creating ... social investment, the humanitarian project of Bolivarian socialism, of the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela,” Maduro says to Xinhua during an interview in Caracas.

The president says the “era of economic growth and prosperity” the country maintained between 2005 and 2015 is on the return, despite the “economic war of sanctions, blockade, (and) commercial persecution” by the United States’ Trump administration. Maduro says these illegal measures have “forced” the nation to take on “resistance economy” that is moving toward “expansion” and “sustainability.”

“With our sustainable economic growth, (we can) resolve the international financial problems we have,” says the head of state. President Maduro tells Xinhua his administration is creating an economic plan that will focus on incentives for the agricultural sector along with oil, gold, diamond and other minerals. The government is also in the process of expanding its “pharmaceutical, textile, and automotive sectors,” says the Venezuelan leader.

When asked about the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Venezuela, Maduro said he feels that the “current relationship” between the two nations “are at their most optimal point of cooperation and collaboration.”

The president said that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have established strategic plans and bilateral agreements “in the commercial, energy, financial, and technological” sectors.

“We are celebrating 45 years of diplomatic relations between China and Venezuela, and we have the best political trust, mutual support, and understanding,” Maduro told the Chinese news outlet. “Venezuela is grateful to China for all of its support, understanding and cooperation.”

The president stressed his country's commitment to continued diplomacy with the Asian nation. “During these circumstances, we have to keep improving, expanding, and adapting relations with China. That is my message to President Xi Jinping, that is my message to the Chinese leadership and my message to the Chinese people 70 years after the People’s Republic of China was founded,” said the Venezuelan head of state.

In the interview the president said he would continue to denounce to the “entire world (and) the United Nations Security Council” how the Trump administration “has assumed an obsessive, aggressive attitude toward the Bolivarian Revolution, totally intolerant, an ideological position that has failed.”

The socialist leader reiterated his dedication to the talks with opposition that were resume this week, mediated by Norway. “Only through dialogue is it possible to come to solutions for Venezuela. A sovereign dialogue between Venezuelans. … I have proposed that a permanent dialogue mechanism be created, a permanent dialogue roundtable capable of passing any storm, any difficulty, any situation, dialogue, dialogue, for peace,” stressed the president.



