The presidents of Russia and Venezuela, Dmitry Medvedev and Hugo Chavez, said on Friday bilateral ties are strengthening.
"We are moving on to new agreements on a wide range of projects," Medvedev said at the two leaders' talks in Moscow. "We have a strategic partnership, we are close friends."
Chavez also confirmed Venezuela's ties with Russia have reached a strategic level.
A series of bilateral agreements were signed after their talks, which covered a range of issues, including space cooperation.
"We hope that infrastructure projects will be developed," Medvedev said at a news conference after the talks. "We talked about high technology and today for the first time ever we touched upon cooperation in the space sphere."
He said that the two states should also develop bilateral trade, as there was still "room for improvement."
"Our trade turnover is not as large as we would like it to be. The turnover is not quite balanced, and there are opportunities to sell goods from Russia to Venezuela and vice versa," the Russian president said.
He said Russia could sell equipment and machinery to Venezuela, and import agricultural products.
Medvedev also expressed Russia's readiness to take part in various Latin American regional organizations and forums to discuss "problems which require our joint approach," such as terrorism, transnational crime, drug trafficking, ecological problems, as well as issues of sustainable development and economic aid.
He said Venezuela acted "like a real friend" when it followed Russia in recognizing the former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia after Chavez's last visit to Russia in September 2009.
Chavez last visited Russia in September 2009 after announcing the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
He arrived in Moscow on Thursday as part of an international tour that also includes Belarus, Ukraine and Iran.
MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti)
