Kerry says US, Venezuela on track to better ties
Source: AP
The United States and Venezuela have agreed to begin a high-level dialogue with the aim of restoring ambassador-level relations and ending more than a decade of steadily deteriorating ties, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
On his first trip to Latin America since taking office and after meeting Venezuela's foreign minister in the first cabinet-level discussion between the two nations in at least several years, Kerry said he was hopeful that a rapprochement could be achieved. The meeting, which came at Venezuela's request, took place just hours after Venezuela released from prison an American filmmaker who had been jailed on espionage charges, removing an immediate irritant in the relationship.
Kerry thanked Foreign Minister Elias Jose Jaua for the release of Timothy Tracy, calling it a "very positive development" and said he and his counterpart had spent about 40 minutes going over in detail areas in which the two countries could cooperate.
"We agreed today — both of us, Venezuela and the United States — that we would like to see our countries find a new way forward, establish a more constructive and positive relationship and find the ways to do that," he told reporters after the meeting. It took place in Guatemala on the sidelines of the annual Organization of American States general assembly.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-says-us-venezuela-track-better-ties-203621950.html
This is welcome news.
= new reply since forum marked as read
