Foreign Ministers of Russia and Venezuela to discuss situation on world energy market
The Foreign Ministers of Russia and Venezuela, Igor Ivanov and Roy Chaderton Matos, will discuss the situation on the world energy market, official Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
Russia and Venezuela, he said, are among the biggest producers and exporters of oil in the world. "Therefore both states are interested in maintaining stability on the energy market," Yakovenko said.
"We are prepared to continue the constructive dialogue on these matters both with Venezuela and in the framework of a broader multilateral interaction in this sphere," he went on.
Energy opens up most favorable prospects for cooperation between the two countries. A number of big Russian energy companies display interest in taking part in it.
Potentially successful areas of bilateral ties could be also gas production, petrochemistry, coal production and development of transport infrastructure. Russian-Venezuelan cooperation projects in this sphere, which are of mutual interest, are possible.
Yakovenko further said that "the present meeting is an important landmark in the development of political contacts with Venezuela." They have grown most active as a result of the two Moscow visits by President Hugo Chavez and the visit by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Caracas in 2001.
It is noted with satisfaction in Moscow that "the approaches of Russia and Venezuela are close as regards problems of shaping a modern system of international relations based on multi-polarity and respect for international law," the diplomat pointed out.
In his view, the "closeness or our approaches to the key problems of our time provides a firm groundwork for continued cooperation between Russia and Venezuela on a bilateral and multilateral basis."
The visit by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton Matos will last until May 18.