Maduro and Russian foreign ministers meet and talk about “strategic” cooperation between Venezuela and the Kremlin

(CNN Spanish) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met this Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with whom he held a private meeting in Caracas to talk about “strategic” cooperation between the two countries, Maduro and the Russian Foreign Ministry. Told myself.

Maduro said on his account on the social network X, formerly Twitter, that the meeting was “meaningful and excellent”. He said the two talked about various aspects of bilateral relations and strengthening “the entire strategic map of comprehensive Russia-Venezuela cooperation.”

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry explained in a brief statement that the meeting discussed “key issues of Russian-Venezuelan cooperation and the further development of strategic partnership relations between the two countries.”

Before the meeting with Maduro, Lavrov held meetings with his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, with whom he also discussed bilateral relations, as previously reported.

Regarding the meeting between Lavrov and Rodriguez, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said, “This meeting underlines the strength of the alliance between our countries and is part of a shared commitment to strengthen strategic cooperation and unity in the multilateral region. ” X Account, formerly Twitter.

Lavrov’s visit to Venezuela – following his previous visit to Cuba – came days after the Maduro government expelled the staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from the country and ordered it to cease its activities. . The representation “deviated” from its mandate and was echoing the messages of the opposition.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner, expressed regret over the decision, and said that “our guiding principles have been and will continue to be to promote and protect the human rights of Venezuelans”, while a spokesperson for that institution told CNN that members of that office Employees continue their work from Panama.

Venezuela is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin’s government and amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has expressed support for his Russian counterpart on several occasions.