OREANDA-NEWS Venezuela will step up military cooperation with Russia to protect the peace and sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic. This was announced on Wednesday by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"We have revised plans for military cooperation and approved the direction for powerful military cooperation between Russia and Venezuela to protect peace, sovereignty, and territorial integrity," said the head of state, whose speech was broadcast on the "Venezolana de Televisión" TV channel. "Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino has clear instructions on this, we will expand the program [of cooperation] with such a military power as Russia."

The President added that "Russia enjoys the full support of Venezuela in the face of threats from NATO and the Western world."

On Wednesday, the working trip of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov to Venezuela began. Borisov heads the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic and technical cooperation with Venezuela.

Earlier it became known that Russia will not take part in the OSCE meeting requested by the Baltic countries, said Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation at the talks on military security and arms control in Vienna. Poland, which chairs the OSCE, announced on February 13 that the Baltic states had requested to hold a meeting with Belarus and other countries in connection with "unusual military activity."

The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the OSCE should stop playing the role of a foreign policy instrument and become a universal organization.