UFA. June 18 (Interfax) - Russian specialists regularly come to Venezuela to help maintain the combat readiness of the country's weapons and military hardware, Secretary General of the Venezuelan National Security Council Pascualino Angiolillo Fernandez said.
"It is possible to speak of close cooperation between our countries. Cooperation is under way in the military sphere," Fernandez told Interfax on the sidelines of an international conference organized by the Russian Security Council in Ufa on Tuesday.
"It is impossible to give an exact number [of Russian specialists in Venezuela]. The dynamics of our cooperation envisages; for instance, that a group of people arrive one month and help arrange the operation of a weapons system. As soon as this is put on combat duty, the group returns to Russia. But then another group arrives and so on and so forth," he said.
"If you take a proper look at the weapons we have, it will become clear that they are not intended for operations outside the country, for dominance or some demonstration of military power outside Venezuela. Rather, they are meant to defend our territory. Venezuela's military doctrine is a defensive one. Of course, it is possible to attack while defending, but in any case our task is to defend our territory," Fernandez said.
"It was based precisely on this doctrine that we procured weapons systems from countries like Russia. In order to use these, we need logistics-related support, maintenance, and technical support. This is the reason why Russian specialists visit Venezuela to maintain the functioning of this equipment," he said.