The Venezuelan government is unwilling to meet with Dutch government officials, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen told parliament on Thursday.

The minister explained that he has tried to organize a high level meeting between the two countries several times, but that the Venezuelan government has been unwilling to cooperate. “Caracas is avoiding us,” he said.

Minister Verhagen would like to talk to Venezuelan President Chávez about an accusation the president made December last year. Mr Chávez claimed that the American government was preparing an attack on Venezuela from the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao.

“The Netherlands is attached to our friendship with the Kingdom’s largest neighbour,” Mr Verhagen said, “We don’t need any escalation of conflict in the area.”

In the debate, Minister Verhagen also refuted the accusation that an American aircraft entered Venezuelan territory. The picture that the Venezuelan government gave as evidence is very old and has been downloaded from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, he argued.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide