Thursday, June 25, 2009

US and Venezuela move forward on relations

From an exchange between a reporter and Ian Kelly, State Department spokesperson at the State Department's daily news briefing, June 24th:

QUESTION: What about Venezuela? She asked --
MR. KELLY: Oh, Venezuela, yeah, sorry. I think I have something on Venezuela. Yes.
Since Secretary Clinton and President Chavez spoke during the Summit of the Americas, both our governments have worked toward the goal of returning ambassadors to our respective capitals. We are currently taking the necessary measures to accomplish this goal. And we think that exchanging ambassadors is in the best interests of both countries. But I don’t have any names for you right now or dates.
QUESTION: So the decision is taken? It means --
MR. KELLY: The decision has been taken to – there was a – what happened was there was a – Assistant Secretary Shannon spoke to Foreign Minister Maduro, and we agreed to move forward. This was on June 22nd, on Monday.