Caracas, June 17 (RHC-teleSUR)-- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has welcomed the prospect of normalized relations with the United States after Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced there would be high-level meetings to improve relations between the two countries.

The Venezuelan president said that his country can coexist with the United States, despite differences.  And, he said, "if the United States can coexist with China, Vietnam and Cuba, why not Venezuela?”

Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been turbulent for over a decade but took a turn for the worse after the United States declared Venezuela to be a threat to its national security.

President Maduro accuses the United States government of conspiring with the Venezuelan opposition to oust him from office.  But the United States suffered an embarrassment at the recent General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Santo Domingo, when member-states rejected Secretary-General Luis Almagro's efforts to have Venezuela suspended from the regional bloc.

Instead, member-states accepted a request from Venezuela to review the behavior of Almagro to determine if he stepped out of line with his polemic and undiplomatic statements aimed at the Venezuelan government.

In light of the dynamics that played out at the OAS, Kerry took a decidedly different line, saying the U.S. opposed suspending Venezuela from the bloc.