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Russian deputy foreign minister meets with Venezuelan leader in Caracas

The diplomat said the bilateral agenda was "very positive" and experienced "no negative effects of the current situation"

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

CARACAS, July 21. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during his visit to Caracas on Saturday.

"We had the honor to be received by President Nicolas Maduro," Ryabkov told reporters after the talks.

"We, on our part, tried to stress that, first of all, the strategic partnership between Russia and Venezuela is unshakable. Secondly, we are convinced that the country’s government led by President Nicolas Maduro is absolutely capable of overcoming the difficulties it is facing," the diplomat continued. "In this regard, the Venezuelan government has Russia’s full support."

The diplomat said the bilateral agenda was "very positive" and experienced "no negative effects of the current situation."

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described the talks as positive.

"A positive working meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has taken place. We talked about the importance of promoting cooperation and exchange in all domains in order to assist the development of our nations," the Venezuelan leader wrote on his Twitter page.

Ryabkov said he met with other senior Venezuelan officials to discuss increasing the presence of Russian companies in Venezula’s machine-building, mining and hydrocarbon extraction sectors.

"We were also received by Executive Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez. We also held good consultations at the level of deputy foreign ministers to discuss the whole range of international issues. Our cooperation develops steadily at the UN and other international organizations," he added.

"We have also discussed all areas of our bilateral cooperation and initiatives in this shere, including the trade. Among other things, we discussed ways to expand the presence of Russian companies here in all economic sectors - machine-building, pharmaceutical industry, hydrocarbon extraction and mining," he said.

"I think that all of this should be considered in the relevant context of creating efficient protection against the unilateral and unlawful coercive measures on the part of the United States, and this was also discussed during the meetings in Caracas," the deputy minister added.

The senior Russian diplomat visited the Venezuelan capital to take part in the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordination Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

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