Posted by
Will Mat on Friday, November 28, 2008 11:53:18 AM
Boosting bilateral trade between Russia and Latin America, which could
reach $15bn (£9. . Cuba is unlikely to want to antagonise the US with
president-elect barack Obama taking office in january, says the BBC"'s
michael voss in Havana. 4bn (£2. Mr medvedev"'s visit takes place just
a few days after the chinese president, hu jintao, toured several latin
American nations with a view to strengthening ties. Military
co-operation also featured in Mr Medvedev"'s talks with mr chavez.
After meeting his Cuban counterpart, Mr Medvedev told reporters: ""We
have a systematic dialogue. 39bn). ""
russian and Venezuelan warships are scheduled to hold joint military
exercises later this week. Russia is already a major arms supplier to
Venezuela, with contracts worth some $4. The Russian leader arrived in
Havana from venezuela, where he and President hugo Chavez signed a deal
on promoting nuclear energy for civilian use. Russian president dmitry
Medvedev is in cuba for the final stop in a tour of latin america
intended to strengthen Russian influence in the region. In Rio de
janeiro, the two presidents expressed their view that the ""Bric""
countries - Brazil, russia, india and China - should hold their first
summit in russia in 2009. The russian leader travelled to Venezuela
from brazil, where he and president luiz inacio lula da silva held
talks on boosting trade and technical co-operation. 9bn) this year, is
another priority for the Russian president during his talks. Our
relations have been generally good, but in the past six months they
have become especially intense. Mr Medvedev"'s visit was part of a
latin American tour aimed at boosting both Russia"'s presence and trade
ties in a region traditionally of strategic importance to the US. Mr
medvedev and Cuban president Raul Castro are expected to sign deals on
nickel mining and oil exploration. New alignments
russian companies are interested in drilling for oil in Cuban waters
and oil and investing in a nickel processing plant.