Russia-Venezuela relations on rise - Lavrov

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and Venezuela are on the ascent, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said at a meeting with Venezuela’s top diplomat, Delcy Rodriguez, on Monday. "Our relations are on the rise, the presidents communicate regularly and confidentially. The high-level commission, which oversees the entire array of multifaceted trade, economic and investment cooperation between Russia and Venezuela, is working," Lavrov said. "All this is important in view of the adverse trends in global economy, which is the main reason for the decline of our trade turnover." "This work is coupled with our robust joint efforts, together with some other OPEC member-countries and non-OPEC countries, which, to a large extent, thanks to President Nicolas Maduro, are establishing cooperation in the global hydrocarbon markets," the minister emphasized. "Bilateral relations in other areas are developing as well, including in the humanitarian and educational spheres," he went on to say. "We appreciate close cooperation between the two countries’ Foreign Ministries." According to Lavrov, "this cooperation helps establish ties on international platforms, above all, at the UN, promote decisions aimed at improving international relations and their democratization, excluding the instances of dictating and ultimatums from international communication." "We appreciate Venezuela’s sincere and valuable support to Russia in deepening our cooperation with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and with the integration associations on your continent on the whole," Russia’s top diplomat said, adding that he hopes to discuss all that in further detail later in the day. Read more