Russia and Venezuela increase cooperation

The Presidents of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev, and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, have taken the partnership between their respective countries to a new level. A day after signing seven new pacts on the 26th of November, Medvedev, who was on his first presidential visit to Venezuela, and Chavez visited the Russian fleet anchored on the port of Guaira, 30km from Caracas. In Caribbean waters for the first time since the Cold War, the Russian navy - including the nuclear-powered battleship Peter the Great - will begin joint naval exercises with its Venezuelan counterpart on the first of December 2008, a move that has alarmed Washington. On board of the Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, Chavez said the joint exercises constituted a 'message of independence', in a clear reference to the United States, and greeted the press joking: 'We are going to Cuba'. According to the new bilateral agreements, the two countries will cooperate in areas such as trade, petrol exploration, nuclear energy and finance, with a new Russo-Venezuelan bi-national bank expected to be created in December this year.