MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russia will continue a substantive political dialogue with the countries of the Latin American and the Caribbean region this year as well as cooperation in various areas, including in countering new threats and challenges, the director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s Latin American department has said in an interview with TASS.
"Russia’s relations with the Latin American countries are of a consistently positive and developing character," Alexander Schetinin said. "They are diversified and develop in various directions."
"This year we are likely to speak about enhancing and widening what has clearly emerged in our cooperation over the past two or three years," the Russian diplomat said.
"First of all, this is a rather substantive political dialogue at different levels," he said, adding that it will further develop this year. "This is also our cooperation in the issues of countering new threats and challenges."
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Russia cooperates closely with the Latin American countries in this area, he said. In particular, this refers to training personnel of the law enforcement agencies of the Latin American countries at special courses launched by Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service in Nicaragua and Peru.
"Of course, this is cooperation in the trade and economic, scientific, technical and investment areas," Schetinin said.
Despite certain difficulties caused by the global economic environment, Russia positively looks at how the cooperation develops with the region in general, he added.
The focus is made not on the trade turnover but on the long-term cooperation and mutual investments linked to developing technological cooperation in energy, biotechnologies, machinery and IT technologies, he said.