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Russia back to Latin America — Medvedev

© POOL / Go to the mediabankRussian President Dmitry Medvedev visiting Argentina
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visiting Argentina - Sputnik International
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Russia is set to develop close cooperation with Latin American countries.

Russia is set to develop close cooperation with Latin American countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during his visit to Argentina, the first top-level official visit in the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"Russia has come back to South America. We did it quite vigorously as early as last year, and now we are very actively developing our relations with [our] Latin American partners," Medvedev said during a news conference in Buenos Aires, which followed talks between the Russian president and his Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Russia would like to develop the "closest cooperation" with Latin America, Medvedev said, adding "the current situation allows doing this."

Medvedev is the second top Russian official to visit Latin America in two weeks. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Venezuela on April 2. During his stay in Caracas, Putin held talks with Venezuelan and Bolivian Presidents, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, which resulted in a number of economic, energy and military-technical deals.

Kirchner said during the news conference in Buenos Aires that the world had changed and that it should be understood by everybody.

"We are not a back yard of any states anymore. We want to develop independent, serious relations [with other states]," she said.

Russia and Argentina signed more than 10 agreements concerning various spheres of bilateral relations, including cooperation in the sphere of peaceful use of nuclear energy, during Medvedev's stay in Buenos Aires.

Medvedev said an agreement, signed by Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom and Argentina's Ministry of Federal Planning, stipulated a several-billion-dollar investment in Argentina's nuclear energy sector. The funds are intended to be spent on the construction of nuclear reactors, as well as on the development of nuclear infrastructure.

The president said the agreement was only one of the deals that stipulated big investment by Russia in the Latin American state.

Medvedev will fly to Brazil later on Thursday to take part in the BRIC summit. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao will also attend the top-level talks.

A delegation of top-ranking Bolivian officials are expected in Moscow on April 26 for talks on energy, military and industrial cooperation.

 

BUENOS AIRES, April 15 (RIA Novosti)

 

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