India Monitoring Conflict Between Venezuela & Guyana

India is closely monitoring the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana, Arindam Bagchi, the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) official spokesperson said during a weekly briefing, highlighting that crude oil purchases from Venezuela could involve private entities.

In response to a question about the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana, Arindam Bagchi stated that "India is closely observing the developments".

Bagchi reiterated India's support for diplomatic and dialogue-based dispute resolution.

As a result of the United States easing sanctions against Venezuela, India is set to resume importing crude oil from Caracas again after a three-year break.

According to shipping schedules shared by trade sources, the private sector behemoth Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has reserved three tankers for loading oil from the Latin American nation in December 2023 and January 2024.

Regarding India's participation, Bagchi suggested that private companies might be involved in Venezuelan crude oil purchases.

According to India's official trade data, Venezuela was the country's fifth-largest oil supplier in 2019, sending nearly 16 million tonnes of crude to Indian refiners.

The possibility of a conflict in an oil-rich country such as Venezuela complicates an already unstable situation, particularly in light of the volatility in global oil prices brought about by Middle East conflicts and OPEC members' production cuts.

In a referendum held last week, nearly 96% of voters in Venezuela supported incorporating the Essequibo region. Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, stated on Wednesday that Georgetown was planning to bring up the issue at the UN Security Council and was considering whether Caracas' decision to incorporate Essequibo—which comprises two-thirds of the territory under Guyana's control—posed a threat to national security.

After independence from Spain in 1845, Venezuela acknowledged Essequibo as a part of its sovereign territory. However, the United Kingdom filed and was successful in an arbitration claim in 1899 to have Essequibo recognised as a part of British Guiana, its then-Caribbean colony. In its 2018 International Court of Justice lawsuit against Venezuela, independent Guyana invoked this Arbitral Award to support its claims of sovereignty over the disputed region.

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