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Mary Catherine Wellons | CNBC
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speak with CNBC at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference on Tuesday, March 12, 2019.
“Now 50 plus countries have recognized that Maduro is illegitimate. It’s time for him to go,” Pompeo said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference.
Pompeo made his comments in an appearance with Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who is also in Houston for one of the year’s biggest gatherings of energy executives and thought leaders. The two cabinet members delivered a forceful message on the potential of U.S. energy supplies to bolster allies and disrupt countries that would use their resources as a weapon.
“You can get American energy and there aren’t any strings attached. That’s the message,” Perry said.
In addition to the Maduro regime, Pompeo and Perry hit out at China, Russia and Iran.
In his keynote speech earlier on Tuesday, Pompeo said China is preventing Southeast Asian countries from developing offshore energy resources by laying claim to vast swaths of the South China Sea.
Asked how the United States can blunt China’s growing influence, Pompeo said the U.S. must put its diplomatic corps to work to make sure Southeast Asian nations can access their oil and gas wealth. The U.S. can also use its own energy innovation and growing role as an oil and natural gas exporter to help the region meet its needs, he said.
