New Delhi: Congress leader and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs Shashi Tharoor criticised the US’ military action against Venezuela, calling it a “breach” of international norms.
In a post on X, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said international rules are increasingly being ignored in favour of brute power. The episode reflected a world where “might is right”, he said.
The US on launched strikes on Venezuela on Saturday, toppling the left-wing leader Maduro and taking him into custody to face trial in New York. This came after months of threats by the Donald Trump administration.
Tharoor responded to a post by author Kapil Komireddi and posted: “International law and the UN Charter have for some years now been honoured in the breach. The Law of the Jungle prevails today. ‘Might is Right’ is the new creed.”
“All those condoning the gangsterism in Venezuela today will shriek ‘internat
ional law’ and ‘UN Charter’ when China abducts Taiwan’s president,” Komireddi, whose post Tharoor reshared, had said.
Trump’s actions have drawn criticism from across the world as well as his own country.
The US operation in Venezuela brought an end to Maduro’s 12-year rule. He had been the subject of a $50 million US bounty. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to New York to face drugs and weapons charges.
India, meanwhile, has said that it is monitoring the situation in the South American country. This comes at a time when it is negotiating a bilateral trade deal with the US, months after Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs, including a 25 per cent penalty over Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.
The volume of bilateral trade between India and Venezuela has declined over the years. It stood at USD 6,397 million in 2019-20, of which Indian imports were worth USD 6,057 million.
The sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the US led India to drop oil imports from Venezuela to a bare minimum.
In 2020-21 bilateral trade between the two countries was USD 1,271 million (Indian imports were USD 714 million). In 2021-22, it fell to USD 424 million (Indian imports were USD 89 million).
In 2022-23, India and Venezuela traded USD 431 million worth of goods (Indian imports were USD 253 million).