Russian President Dmitri Medvedev told his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez that active cooperation between Moscow and Caracas "has become one of the key regional security factors" in Latin America.

"In the last few years, contacts and relationships between Russia and Venezuela have become not only stable but also dynamic," Medvedev said when welcoming Chávez at Meiendorf Castle, the Russian president residence outside Moscow.

Medvedev added that the impressive growth in bilateral trade between Venezuela and Russia, that reached USD 1.1 billion last year (a 100 percent increase with respect to 2006), is a proof of this fact. The Russian president made a call to "optimize" cooperation, which is strongly linked to the purchasing of Russian military hardware by the Venezuelan government.