President Trump met privately Tuesday evening with Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, marking the first sit-down between a sitting U.S. president and a Venezuelan head of state in 11 years — and the first contact between Washington and Caracas since American forces captured former President Nicolás Maduro in a January raid.

The pull-aside meeting took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, during a reception Trump hosted for visiting world leaders at a Manhattan hotel, according to France 24. It was closed to press.

Rodríguez, on her first trip to the U.S. since taking office, called the encounter "historic" in a message posted on X alongside a photo of the two leaders smiling together, i24NEWS reported.

Oil, Mining and a Country Trying to Look "Investable"

A White House official said the meeting included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and senior policy aide Stephen Miller on the American side. The two governments discussed "strengthening the bilateral relationship" and a "cooperation agenda" spanning energy, mining and security.

A COOPERATION AGENDA IN STRATEGIC AREAS SUCH AS ENERGY, MINING AND SECURITY.

Rodríguez's delegation included Venezuela's vice president for the economy, its oil minister and officials from state oil giant PDVSA — a lineup assembled, diplomats said, specifically to pitch Venezuela as "investable" again after years of U.S. sanctions and diplomatic isolation. Maduro, meanwhile, remains in pretrial detention in the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges he denies.

Ending Years of Isolation

Washington and Caracas have had no formal diplomatic relations for years, and U.S. sanctions have throttled Venezuela's oil exports — once the backbone of its economy — since the previous decade. The January operation that captured Maduro marked a dramatic escalation after months of American military pressure in the region, and Rodríguez's government has spent the months since trying to stabilize the country and reopen channels with Washington.

The last time a Venezuelan head of state addressed the UN General Assembly in person was Maduro himself, back in 2018. Rodríguez's presence in New York this week — and now a direct audience with the American president — signals how quickly the diplomatic map has shifted since his removal from power earlier this year.

Neither government detailed concrete next steps, and no agreements were announced. But officials on both sides described the meeting as the opening move in a broader normalization process that could reshape U.S.-Venezuela relations, and the flow of Venezuelan oil, for years to come.