NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez discussed the restructuring of the South American nation’s massive sovereign debt load, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
The pull-aside meeting at a reception Trump hosted late on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly came during Rodriguez’s first trip to the US since American forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid.
“There’s a lot that needs to be fixed in order for Venezuela to be successful,” Rubio told reporters. “Debt restructuring is key to that.”
Rubio said Venezuela had “probably the world’s largest sovereign debt that has to be restructured” and said the United States wanted to help, but that “it has to be done in the right way.”
The government and state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela have about $60 billion of bonds that are in default, although analysts estimate that once accrued interest, other claims and arbitration awards are included, total liabilities could top $150 billion.
Rubio described the meeting between Trump and Rodriguez as short but important.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis in New York and Katharine Jackson and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by David Ljunggren and Kylie Madry)
