Venezuela announces closure of Norway, Australia embassies

Caracas/Oslo: Venezuela's government said on Monday it will close its embassies in Norway and Australia and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US.

The closures are part of the "strategic re-assignation of resources," President Nicolas Maduro's government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in coming days.

Norway's foreign ministry said it had received notice of the embassy closure but no reason for the decision. Norway does not have an embassy in Caracas, and handles local affairs through its embassy in the capital of neighboring Colombia.

"This is regrettable. Despite the fact that we have different views on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will work towards that," a foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters. The announcement occurred just days after the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy in the South American country. Machado dedicated the prize to U.S. President Donald Trump.

"The Nobel Prize is independent of the Norwegian government and when it comes to questions about the prize, we refer to the Nobel Committee," the Norwegian foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary of the award body, told Reuters the Venezuelan embassy's closure was not an issue for the committee.

"For the committee, the task at hand is to select the right Nobel Peace Prize laureate," he said. "And Maria Corina Machado is certainly a worthy winner!"

The Venezuelan embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to an email request for comment. Phone calls to the two numbers listed on the Venezuelan embassy's website, made outside of normal business hours, did not ring and were not answered.

Strategic allies

Caracas said it was instead setting up new embassies in "two sister nations, strategic allies in the anti-colonial fight and in the resistance against hegemonic pressures."

It added that these new embassies would serve to launch joint projects involving agriculture, energy, education, mining and other common interests.

The embassy closures with the two U.S. allies followed weeks of escalating tensions between Caracas and Washington. Venezuela has called on the United Nations for support over several deadly U.S. military strikes on vessels off its Caribbean coast, which Washington alleges were carrying drugs. Some U.S. allies on the U.N. Security Council called for de-escalation and dialogue.

Venezuela has said it is in a situation where it is rational to expect an armed attack against the country in the short-term, and Maduro has alleged the U.S. is seeking a change in government. Washington has not responded to this accusation, but has called Venezuela's socialist leader the illegitimate head of a narco-state. The U.S. also has announced a new counter-narcotics task force in its Southern Command, a military branch that oversees Latin America.

The governments of Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso are more aligned with that of Russia, which has supported Venezuela at the U.N. and accused the U.S. of acting according to "the cowboy principle of 'shoot first.'"