Russia to help Venezuela build nuclear power plant

2010-10-15 20:06:21 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Russia and Venezuela on Friday signed an agreement involving the construction of a nuclear power plant in the South American country, officials said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow, discussing bilateral relations in trade and economic relations but also topics on the international and regional agenda.

The meeting was part of Chevez's international tour which includes official visits to Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Syria and Portugal.

"We are moving on to new agreements on a wide range of projects," Medvedev said in a joint press conference after the meeting. "We have a strategic partnership and we are close friends."

The agreement to build a nuclear plant in Venezuela was only one of nearly a dozen documents signed. The main document, the Action Plan for the development of Russian-Venezuelan partnerships for 2010-2014, directs joint activities in the field of politics, economics and finance, energy, military-technical cooperation, nuclear energy, telecommunications, education, tourism, and more.

Besides that agreement, the Presidents also signed nine other documents that aim - in particular - to promote cooperation in energy, nuclear energy, and customs.

In April, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Caracas in Venezuela in which the two countries initially reached the agreements. Chavez, before making his trip to Russia, had previously stated that Venezuela was entering the "road of nuclear energy."

"Needless to say, but I will say for peaceful purposes, of course," Chavez stressed.

"We hope that infrastructure projects will be developed," Medvedev added. "We talked about high technology and today for the first time ever we touched upon cooperation in the space sphere."

Chavez's last visit to Russia was in September 2009 after announcing the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Venezuela became the third country to do so at the time, after Russia and Nicaragua.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-15

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