Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last night that he was ready to hold a "private" conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Agence France-Presse reported.
Maduro made the statement after Trump said he was ready to meet with the Venezuelan leader despite the US deploying a fleet of warships to the Caribbean Sea as part of its anti-drug operation.
„In the US, anyone who wants to talk to Venezuela can talk to us face to face, privately. No problem. "What we cannot allow is for the Christian people of Venezuela to be bombed and killed," Maduro said in response to a letter from an American pastor during his weekly broadcast on Venezuelan public television.
US President Donald Trump said he supported taking more aggressive action against drug cartels and drug production in Mexico and Colombia, but stopped short of announcing direct US military intervention in either country, Reuters reported.
Trump has stepped up his campaign against drug trafficking by sea, authorizing more powerful operations and giving US forces expanded powers to disable or sink vessels suspected of carrying drugs.
When asked at an Oval Office event whether he would support such ground strikes in Mexico to stop drug trafficking, the US president said“ “That's fine with me— whatever we have to do to stop the drugs“.
He later raised the possibility of targeting cocaine labs in Colombia.
“Would I destroy those factories? I would be proud to do it personally“, Trump said. “I'm not saying I would do it, but I would be proud to do it because we would save millions of lives“, he added.
Trump also reiterated the possibility of reaching out to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, despite U.S. military operations in the Caribbean.
“At some point I will talk to him“, the American president said in response to a journalist's question about whether he planned such contact. “Yes, I would probably talk to him. "I'm talking to everybody," Trump added.
However, he did not rule out the possibility of conducting a ground military operation in Venezuela. "I'm not ruling anything out, we have to solve the Venezuela issue," Trump stressed.