GENEVA (Reuters) – U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abram called on Russia and China on Thursday to provide more humanitarian aid aid to their ally Venezuela in the fight against the growing COVID-19 epidemic there.
“We would like to see them contribute more on the humanitarian side. There have been, I believe, some contribution of goods with respect to COVID-19 by Russia and China,” Abram told a diplomatic event organised by the U.S. mission to the U.N. in Geneva. “But the scale, the dollar amount of this aid, is really quite low in comparison to the needs.”
Abram said opposition leader Juan Guaido and his interim government would soon provide $20 mln in assets to which they had access in the United States to the Pan-American Health Organisation and other aid groups. “We are nearing fruition on that plan which was slowed down by the regime,” he said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Gareth Jones)
