CARACAS, March 30. /TASS/. The military cooperation between Moscow and Caracas should not be a source of concern for other states, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Friday.
"It’s of no secret to anyone that our country has been maintaining the defense cooperation with Russia since 2001, but their [Russian servicemen’s] visit has sparked a scandal," the Venezuelan Defense Ministry quoted Padrino as saying in a Twitter post. "Nobody should worry about cooperation to increase our operative readiness."
Earlier on Friday, US national security adviser John Bolton said that his country viewed the deployment of other states’ troops in Venezuela as a threat to the region.
El Comercio earlier reported the arrival of An-124 and Il-62 planes to Caracas Airport on March 23, carrying Russian servicemen and 35 tonnes of cargo on board. Venezuelan President of the Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello later confirmed the information.
In a comment released on March 26, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that experts from Russia arrived in Venezuela in strict compliance with the country’s constitution and the bilateral intergovernmental agreement on military-technical cooperation signed in May 2001 and duly ratified by both states.
