Politics

Venezuela will buy training planes and fighters from China, and at the same time it has offered its territory to the Russian government for its aircrafts can stop over and its ships have a port of call, said President Hugo Chávez, who did not elaborate on the characteristics of the weaponry he will negotiate in two weeks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Although President Chávez insisted that he has ruled out the possibility that the Russian government would deploy a military base in Venezuela, as some foreign news agencies reported after his meeting with representatives of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Chávez clarified that if the Russian fleet "is navigating through the Atlantic and asks us to visit Venezuela, they will be welcome. We have no problem. And it seems that they want to come."

Chávez explained that if "long range Russian airplanes need to land in any Venezuelan airport, they will also be welcomed (...) Today, Russia is a strategic ally of Venezuela and the world must be aware of it."