Iran and Venezuela on Thursday vowed to further strengthen ties and find common ways to cope with the global economic crisis, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“A ten-year plan for the two countries” ties as well as a plan to combat the global crisis will be drawn up in this visit,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Chavez.
“Iran and Venezuela ties have introduced a common revolutionary front … in the world,” Ahmadinejad said, vowing the two countries will “continue to stand by each other”.
Chavez arrived on his sixth visit to Tehran on Wednesday after an Arab-South American summit in Doha.
The leftist leader said the two countries should “further strengthen their trade cooperation,” IRNA reported.
Local media have reported that an Iranian-Venezuelan bank will be launched on Friday.
Iran and Venezuela, whose outspoken president has turned into a hero figure for many in the Middle East, have forged increasingly strong ties based on their opposition to the United States.
Chavez is a vocal cheerleader in Latin America for Iran and its nuclear programme, which the West suspects to be a cover for weapons development although Tehran insists it is purely peaceful.
Venezuela expelled the ambassador of Iran”s arch-foe Israel from Caracas in January to protest the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.
