Uday Kotak cites hard power race behind Venezuela attack
Victim country’s vast oil reserves central to US action
image for illustrative purpose
New Delhi: Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak said on Sunday that the US attack on Venezuela and the capture of the oil-rich country's President Nicholas Maduro reflects the "race for hard power" between nations in today’s world.
Kotak highlighted the fact that Venezuela is a country with the "largest oil reserves on earth" and hinted that the US operation in the South American country was linked to this fact.
"The United States takes control over Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves on earth. As I said in my year-end musings, this is a world of hard power, and the race between nations is on," he wrote on X.
The veteran banker had pointed out in his year-end views that the world has become less tolerant of alternative points of view and has become more transient and transactional in relationships, with the dominance of hard power over soft power. He highlighted that the race between countries is getting more intense and less mindful of consequences.
President Donald Trump announced, at a press conference after the capture of Maduro, that the US would run Venezuela and American oil companies would invest billions of dollars to produce more oil in the Latin American country.
"We’re going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country," he said.
Trump also noted that Venezuela had earlier grabbed the oil assets of US oil companies, which would now be recovered.
