MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian President calls Putin to review trade and technology joint work

Russian authorities insisted the conversation was held at Bolivia's initiative

Presidents Luis Arce Catacora of Bolivia and Vladimir Putin of Russia held a telephone conversation Friday during which they discussed various items of mutual interest such as energy, trade, education, and technology.

It was the same day the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

“We held an important telephone conversation with the president of #Russia, Vladimir Putin, with whom we reaffirmed our good relations of friendship and cooperation in trade, economic, energy, education, science and technology for the development of our peoples,” wrote Arce on social media.

The Russian Presidency also said that such a dialogue, was a Bolivian initiative and that both presidents discussed in detail the main areas of cooperation between the two nations. Arce and Putin expressed their intention to further expand bilateral ties and intensify contacts at various levels.

In October 2021, Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow about Bolivia's interest in large Russian corporations participating in the South American country's economy. Among the Russian companies operating in Bolivia are Gazprom, which is part of a consortium for gas processing; Rusatom, a company with which the Government agreed to build a nuclear research center in the city of El Alto; as well as other railway companies.

Bolivia has abstained from voting against Russia at the United Nations after the invasion of Ukraine. The last telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and Bolivia took place in August 2021 and was focused on the cooperation between the two countries in the fight against the coronavirus.

Both countries have growing relations in health and biotechnology, including a center for the production of radiopharmaceuticals against cancer built jointly by Rosatom and the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency. The plant supplies fluorodeoxyglucose to hospitals nationwide.