Venezuela, China maintain "perfect cooperation": Maduro

Caracas today maintains "perfect cooperation" with Beijing that goes beyond economic agreements and starts to socially benefit millions of Venezuelans, President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday.

In a ceremony welcoming the new Chinese ambassador to Venezuela, Zhao Bentang, Maduro called Zhao an "old friend of Venezuela" while the Chinese diplomat handed his credentials to the Venezuelan leader.

Pledging to strengthen bilateral cooperation, both men stressed that relations between China and Venezuela transcend the purely diplomatic level and are supported by the large number of bilateral strategic agreements in the fields of energy, infrastructure, agriculture, technology, education, etc.

Maduro said Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Venezuela in July 2014 "gave a great momentum to our cooperation with new projects in infrastructure, technology and industrial areas as well as a financing scheme that benefits both nations."

Zhao conveyed President Xi's greetings to Maduro, noting that during Xi's successful visit, the two countries upgraded bilateral ties into a comprehensive strategic partnership and began a new phase of cooperation. Endi