The diplomatic relations between the countries date back to March 14, 1945. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Evgeny Primakov’s visit to Caracas in 1996 resulted in approval of a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. When the Hugo Chavez administration took over, bilateral ties between Russia and Venezuela significantly revived. The new President frequented to Russia since 2001. In the 2000s, the volume of products, particularly military equipment, imported by Venezuela from Russia earned the country the second place among other Latin American states. November 2008 saw Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s first official visit to Venezuela.

By this day, the countries have signed 40-plus agreements of various nature.

The development of military and technical cooperation between Russia and Venezuela is governed by the government-to-government agreement signed during President Chavez’s visit to Moscow in May 2001. The same year in December, the partners established a Russian-Venezuelan Intergovernmental Committee incorporating 10 sub-committees, including one on military and technical cooperation.

The year of 2005 witnessed approval of first contracts in the military and technical cooperation domain in Caracas. This paved the way for a contract signed in May for supply of Russian AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles to be adopted by the Venezuelan Armed Forces in 2006.
Other Russian equipment delivered to the country includes Mi-type helicopters, Tor-M1 SAM systems, Su-type fighters, etc. Apart from Transport Aviation and Navy, the Armed Forces of Venezuela are almost entirely equipped with Russian systems.
Another milestone in 2006 was that the partners signed a contract for construction of Russian helicopter maintenance center and plant for production of Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition for them.

Russia and Venezuela signed in September 2009 an IP Protection Agreement for the purpose of military and technical cooperation.

Venezuela hosts a representative office of Rostec, Russia’s state corporation, that also projects Rosoboronexport’s interests in the country. Telephone number of the office: (+58212) 761-52-83, fax: (+58212) 761-18-52, e-mail: rep4311@rostec.ru