Caracas - Venezuela reiterated its willingness to change the bilateral relations it maintains with the United States today and to build a positive agenda for both countries, based on the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, stated this last night in a reference to the meeting he held with Secretary of State John Kerry in Cartagena, on Monday, after the formal ceremony of the signing of peace between the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC, in Spanish).

During the 68th emission of the program Contact with Maduro, broadcasted by Venezolana de Television, the head of state said he ratified Kerry the willingness to initiate a diplomatic exchange with the United States, based on equal rights, self-determination of peoples and refraining from threats or use of force.

The meeting was very good and honest, it was developed in a diplomatic and enjoyable way, in a climate of mutual respect, pointed out the South American President, before stating that 'the Bolivarian government is ready to carry out peaceful exchanges with President Barack Obama' and with the next US administrations.

We committed to work to build an agenda of peace for our peoples and governments, he repeated.

Maduro said he has hopes in the positive effects of the meeting to promote the creation of opportunities and policies focused towards a 'different stage' in the common history of both nations.

In addition, he revealed that soon Thomas Shannon, Deputy Secretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs will visit Venezuela and indicated Kerry will travel to Caracas if the relations of the two countries improve.

We want with the United States, he said, the same relations of peace and respect we have with other countries, and for which we preside key international organizations such as the Union of South American Nations, and we belong to important alliances such as the Security Council of the Organization United Nations.

The peace diplomacy has always been our characteristic in foreign affairs since 1999 with the arrival of Commander Hugo Chavez to power, he concluded.

During the last fifteen decades, Washington has maintained an interventionist attitude in its relationship with Venezuela, despite the reactions against the Bolivarian Government and countless invitations to establish relations with respect for sovereignty and in accordance with the principles of the United Nations.

The Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez had also met with Kerry in June, in the context of the 46th General Assembly of the Organization of American States, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where it was expressed the will to 'appoint ambassadors and normalize bilateral relations', after the withdrawal of both diplomatic representations in 2010.