U.S. President Donald Trump and interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez met on the night of Sept. 22 on the sidelines of a U.N. reception, their first face-to-face talks since American forces seized former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
The pull-aside was booked for 7:40 p.m. at a gathering Trump is hosting during the U.N. General Assembly. No joint appearance was planned nor a detailed agenda released.
Participants in the meeting with Rodríguez included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Stephen Miller, assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for policy.
“We held a historic meeting with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, during which we discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security, and other matters of mutual interest,” Rodríguez said in a statement on Telegram.
“We expressed our gratitude to President Trump and his administration for the steadfast support provided during the emergency caused by the earthquakes of June 24, as well as for their backing of our country’s reintegration into multilateral forums,” she wrote, according to a translation.
“Venezuela and the United States share a historic relationship that, in this new phase, we are called upon to steer through dialogue. We will continue to pursue a diplomacy that serves the national interest, aimed at achieving concrete results and collective benefits for the Venezuelan people.”
Rodríguez landed on Sept. 21 for what is her first trip to the United States since taking office. She is scheduled to address the General Assembly on the afternoon of Sept. 23.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told reporters about the upcoming meeting on a call.
“The president will host a U.N. General Assembly leaders’ reception. There, he’ll participate in a pull-aside with the acting president Rodríguez of Venezuela,” Waltz said. He did not say what they would discuss.
Trump spoke to the General Assembly on the morning of Sept. 22, hours before the reception, where he called Maduro an “outlaw dictator,” adding that hundreds of political prisoners had been freed since the capture. Trump pointed to the January raid as proof Washington would use its “unmatched military might” to protect its interests in the Western Hemisphere.
“To the victor belong the spoils,” he said, calling an oil deal his administration signed with Caracas last month “perhaps the biggest deal ever made.”
He has said he wants $100 billion in investment to flow into Venezuela’s oil industry.
On Sept. 16, Trump removed Venezuela from the U.S. list of countries that have failed to combat drug trafficking. The country had been on that list since 2005.
“Given the positive steps taken under interim President Delcy Rodríguez, I have determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as having failed demonstrably to fulfill its drug control commitments,” the presidential determination states. “I expect to see continued, measurable progress from the interim government in dismantling narcoterrorist groups and stopping drug trafficking through Venezuela to the United States.”
Last month the two governments signed an energy agreement covering 65 billion barrels of reserves. Trump called it in a Truth Social post “the biggest oil deal in world history.”
Rodríguez said the pact is meant to last 25 years and to develop 17 strategic oil fields with a production target of more than 1.5 million barrels per day.
“This deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people,” Rubio wrote on X.
Rodríguez, 56, was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and trained as a lawyer. Maduro named her vice president in 2018. U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3 and flew them to the United States on narcoterrorism and drug charges. Venezuela’s high court then designated Rodríguez interim president. Maduro has pleaded not guilty.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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