Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jose Jaua Milano plans to pay an official visit to Iran next month to discuss opportunities for expanding bilateral ties. Milano is slated to meet with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss bilateral ties and regional as well as international developments. The Venezuelan foreign minister will also hold separate meetings with other senior Iranian officials during his stay in Tehran late in May. Iran has in recent years expanded friendly ties with Latin America, specially in economic, trade and industrial fields. Iran's strong and rapidly growing ties with Latin America, specially with Venezuela, have raised eyebrows in the US and its western allies since Tehran and Latin nations have forged an alliance against the imperialist and colonialist powers and are striving hard to reinvigorate their relations with the other independent countries which pursue a line of policy independent from the US.