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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States on Friday reacted with caution to the reports that in addition to talks with Iran and others, Venezuela has reached an agreement with Russian Federation to build the first nuclear plant in Venezuela.

“This is something that we will watch very closely,” said PJ Crowley, the State Department spokesman, noting that all Nonproliferation Treaty signatories, “have rights and they have responsibilities. It is certainly a right of any country to pursue civilian nuclear energy, but with that right comes responsibilities.”

“We would expect Venezuela, Russia, or any other country pursuing this kind of technology to meet all international obligations,” Crowley hoped.

Crowley denied that the announcement took the U.S. by surprise, saying, “This is an area that we’ve been watching for some time. I don’t think that this necessarily is a surprise to us.”

On the warming up of relations between Venezuela and Russia, Crowley told journalists at the State Department briefing, “The relationship between Venezuela and Russia is not really of concern to us but clearly, we want to make sure that for this particular civilian nuclear cooperation arrangement that all international obligations are met and that whatever results from this announcement is done in concert with the highest international standards.”

Crowley, however, cautioned, “the last thing we need to do is see technology migrate to countries or groups that should not have that technology.”

The U.S. has confidence in Russian Federation, noted Crowley saying, “We have confidence in Russia. In the context of Iran for example, it has made sure that cooperation that it has with Iran with respect to Bushehr has been done with full cooperation of the IAEA.”

He added, “We would expect any arrangement that might go forward based on this announcement would meet international standards and ensure, and also full cooperation with the IAEA.”

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