MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russian warplanes that arrived in Venezuela on Monday will take part in joint flights, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who welcomed the Russian planes at the Maiquet·a "Sim·n Bol·var" International Airport, said.
"We are getting prepared to defend Venezuela when it is needed. And we will do it with our friends who advocate respect-based relations between state," he said.
According to the Russian defense ministry, two Tu-160 strategic bombers, an An-124 heavy military transport plane and an Il-62 long-haul plane of the Russian aerospace forces that took off from aerodromes in Russia covered a distance of 10,000 kilometers and flew over the Atlantic Ocean, the Barents, Norwegian and Caribbean Seas in strict compliance with the international rules of the use of airspace.
It was not the first such flight performed by Russian Tu-160 warplanes. Such planes reached Venezuela in September 2008 and in October-November 2013.