Energy sector among promising areas for expansion of Russian-Venezuelan cooperation - Lavrov

CARACAS. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Russia and Venezuela are strategic partners, and expansion of the countries' cooperation in the energy sector is among promising areas of interaction, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"Venezuela is one of Russia's most reliable and closest friends in the Latin America region and in the whole world. We are linked with a close strategic partnership relations. They are, without any exaggeration, a value in themselves, they are unaffected by any external situations," he said in Caracas on Tuesday after talks with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil.

Among the promising areas of cooperation between Moscow and Caracas, Lavrov mentioned "the expansion of interaction in oil production, development of gas fields, agricultural sector, healthcare and pharmaceutics, exploration of space, [and] IT and innovation."

"The peaceful use of nuclear energy is also a promising area," he said.

"We also spoke about our cooperation in OPEC+, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. All of these are highly promising areas of our joint work with the other countries that are part of these unions," Lavrov said.