RUSSIA and Venezuela held high level talks in Caracas on Tuesday in a show of political and economic independence between the two nations. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil held a joint press conference in Caracas hours after the former arrived in the country in the second stop of a tour of four Latin American nations. 

Both men vowed continued support for each other’s country and condemned the economic sanctions Washington has imposed on them.

“We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends,” Mr Lavrov said. 

“It is their country ... and we are going to support it in any way so that the Venezuelan economy becomes an independent economy from the pressures of the United States and other western actors.”

Officials from both nations reviewed some of the hundreds of agreements between both countries covering the financial, energy, agricultural and other sectors.

The two top diplomats also met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela and Russia are among a number of countries, including Brazil, who are developing an alternative to Swift, the system that enables global financial transactions, but to which key Russian banks lost access last year. 

Those banks were cut off as part of economic sanctions imposed on Russia at the start of the war in Ukraine last year.

Russia, along with China, is an unconditional ally of the Venezuelan government. Its support has allowed it to circumvent crippling economic sanctions meant to oust President Maduro.

Mr Lavrov began his tour of Latin America on Monday with a stop in Brazil, where the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking to simultaneously develop ties with China, Europe and the US, while keeping an open door to Russia. 

The Russian foreign minister is also set to visit Cuba and Nicaragua this week.