Venezuela’s government said on Monday it will close its
embassies in Norway and Australia and open new ones in Burkina
Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service,
after weeks of growing tensions with the US.
The closures are part of the “strategic re-assignation of
resources,” President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a
statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in
Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions,
with details to be shared in coming days.
Norway’s foreign ministry said it had received notice of the
embassy closure but no reason for the decision. Norway does not
have an embassy in Caracas, and handles local affairs through
its embassy in the capital of neighboring Colombia.
“This is regrettable. Despite the fact that we have
different views on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the
dialogue with Venezuela open and will work towards that,” a
foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters.
The announcement occurred just days after the Nobel Committee in
Oslo announced that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina
Machado had won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for
democracy in the South American country.
Machado dedicated the prize to US President Donald Trump.
“The Nobel Prize is independent of the Norwegian government
and when it comes to questions about the prize, we refer to the
Nobel Committee,” the Norwegian foreign ministry spokesperson
said.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary of the award body, told
Reuters the Venezuelan embassy’s closure was not an issue for
the committee.
“For the committee, the task at hand is to select the right
Nobel Peace Prize laureate,” he said. “And Maria Corina Machado
is certainly a worthy winner!”
The Venezuelan embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to
an email request for comment. Phone calls to the two numbers
listed on the Venezuelan embassy’s website, made outside of
normal business hours, did not ring and were not answered.
Strategic allies
Caracas said it was instead setting up new embassies in “two
sister nations, strategic allies in the anti-colonial fight and
in the resistance against hegemonic pressures.”
It added that these new embassies would serve to launch
joint projects involving agriculture, energy, education, mining
and other common interests.
The embassy closures with the two US allies followed weeks
of escalating tensions between Caracas and Washington.
Venezuela has called on the United Nations for support over
several deadly US military strikes on vessels off its
Caribbean coast, which Washington alleges were carrying drugs.
Some US allies on the UN Security Council called for
de-escalation and dialogue.
Venezuela has said it is in a situation where it is rational
to expect an armed attack against the country in the short-term,
and Maduro has alleged the US is seeking a change in
government.
Washington has not responded to this accusation, but has called
Venezuela’s socialist leader the illegitimate head of a
narco-state. The US also has announced a new counter-narcotics
task force in its Southern Command, a military branch that
oversees Latin America.
The governments of Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso are more
aligned with that of Russia, which has supported Venezuela at
the UN and accused the U.S. of acting according to “the cowboy
principle of ‘shoot first.'”
