Bolivian President Evo Morales met his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, Monday for talks on issues including increasing cooperation in the energy sector, the Kremlin said.
Morales hopes to reinforce cooperation in the production of the natural gas resources of Bolivia, which has the second largest gas reserves in Latin America after Venezuela.
Besides gas, Medvedev will talk with Morales about increasing assistance in trade and military technology, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The talks come as an increasingly reassertive Russia seeks to expand its influence in Latin America, where Moscow had close allies during the Soviet era.
Medvedev himself visited Latin America last year and earlier this month met Cuban President Raul Castro in Moscow, in the first such visit since the fall of Communism.
The talks between Morales and Medvedev started in the Kremlin at around 1000 GMT and a news conference was expected later in the day, state television pictures showed.
Currently, Russia's trade with Bolivia stands at $5.5 million a year, of which $4.8 million is made up of the export to Russia of such Bolivian products as coffee, fruit, vegetable oil and fertilizer.