CARACAS, February 7. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday his meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was held in an atmosphere of trust.

"The visit was very busy. We have just finished a long and very frank conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Before it, in the morning, we had talks with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. The talks involved Venezuelan ministers who are in charge of economic matters," he said after the meeting with Maduro.

"We focused key attention to concrete issues that need to be resolved to ensure further development of our strategic partnership," Lavrov noted, adding that the benchmark in these discussions were the agreements reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela during their meeting in Moscow last September.

"We reiterated our commitment to the respect to Venezuela’s sovereignty, our solidarity with the Venezuelan leaders and the Venezuelan people in their resistance to the illegal pressure from the United States and its allies," the Russian top diplomat stressed.