{"id":268398,"date":"2026-01-05T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268398\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:11:08","slug":"taoiseach-declines-to-criticise-us-over-capture-of-venezuelas-maduro-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268398\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach declines to criticise US over capture of Venezuela\u2019s Maduro \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has declined to criticise the United States for its abduction of Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> but said he would have preferred a peaceful transition to democracy in the country. <\/p>\n

Speaking in Beijing after meeting Chinese<\/a> president Xi Jinping<\/a>, Mr Martin said that, in common with other European Union<\/a> member-states, the Government had not accepted the legitimacy of Mr Maduro\u2019s claim to the presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did a lot of damage and was quite tyrannical in his approach and repressive as a leader,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, we do believe that the future of Venezuela is one that must be decided by the people of Venezuela, and everybody should work to create the right conditions to enable free and fair elections to take place in Venezuela, and that the right conditions would be created because in the last election, we saw what happened when essentially that result was stolen in a repressive manner. We have to ensure that the people get to decide their future in Venezuela and that there\u2019s strong adherence to international rules-based order.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach and Mr Xi met in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, sitting across a broad, long table from one another with each leader flanked by their officials. The Chinese president noted that Mr Martin was the first European leader to visit China in 2026, suggesting that this reflected the value they both attached to the bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth China and Ireland are peace-loving, open-minded, inclusive, self-reliant, and enterprising. The people of both countries won national independence and liberation through struggle, and have relied on generations of continuous efforts to move towards modernisation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Ireland, deepen political mutual trust, expand pragmatic co-operation, seek benefits for the people of both countries, and add impetus to China-EU relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach recalled Mr Xi\u2019s visit to Ireland as China\u2019s vice-president in 2012, which he said laid the foundation for today\u2019s bilateral relationship. He praised China\u2019s role in the United Nations, particularly in peacekeeping and stressed Ireland\u2019s commitment to an open trading system.<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin speaks to China’s president Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photograph: Andy Wong\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the modern world, engagement is still key irrespective of the particular policy decisions or initiatives that are taken from time to time by individual countries. So in other words, Ireland has always been international since our independence,\u201d Mr Martin told reporters later. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn our discussions this morning, president Xi was very clear on the importance of the UN and the need to reform the UN, the need for the UN to reclaim authority on the global stage. And that\u2019s something that Ireland ascribes to very, very strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach went from Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City, home to China\u2019s emperors for 500 years until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. The museum complex is closed on Mondays so Mr Martin and his delegation had it to themselves as they were led through it on a private tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a fascinating place encompassing an extraordinary period of your nation\u2019s history. I pay tribute to the great work and success in conserving and preserving such historically important buildings and artefacts. It has been a most stimulating and fascinating visit which will inspire further study,\u201d Mr Martin wrote in the visitors\u2019 book afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has declined to criticise the United States for its abduction of Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,381,2219,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5765,5,42875,7,8,107,4450,65,66,67,3997],"class_list":{"0":"post-268398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-micheal-martin","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-nicolas-maduro","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-venezuela","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-worldnews","29":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115842664666846425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}