MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro meets with Emir of Qatar to strengthen bilateral ties

Maduro deepened Venezuela's ties with yet another Arab nation during his “Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace” tour

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro held a meeting Wednesday with the emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al Thani in Doha, during which cooperation in “the fields of energy, economy, investment, agriculture, and tourism” were discussed, according to local media reports.

Maduro is on an international tour, which included stops at Turkey, Algeria, Iran, and Kuwait.

Al Thani and Maduro reviewed “the relations of friendship and joint cooperation, and the prospects for expanding them for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries,” the official Qatari news agency QNA reported.

The meeting focused on cooperation in “the fields of energy, economy, investment, agriculture, and tourism, in addition to exchanging views on the most prominent issues at the regional and international levels,” QNA added.

It was Maduro's third official visit since 2015 to Qatar, a country not aligned with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and one of the largest gas-supplying powers worldwide.

Maduro said the purpose of his visit was “to strengthen and expand at the highest level the relations of union and complementarity”, and hoped that “a fruitful and successful agenda awaits us”, according to his official Twitter account.

“From Qatar, the fifth country we visited in the route of our Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace, we work for the construction of the cooperation map for the welfare of the Venezuelan people and for the union and brotherhood among nations. We do everything out of love for the homeland.” Maduro posted on social media.

He started his current international tour on June 7. He has signed deals “in the areas of science and technology, agriculture, transportation, energy, tourism and culture,” particularly with Iran, where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Venezuela's “resistance” against the United States, and sealed a 20-year strategic cooperation agreement, which provides for cooperation between both countries in the oil, petrochemical, tourism, food and technology sectors.

Venezuela received earlier this week an Airbus 340-600 long-distance passenger jet from Iranian carrier Mahan Air.