Brazil will support Venezuela’s industrialization plans, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday after talks with Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff on the first full day of her second four-year term.

Venezuela and Brazil want to energize their relations at all levels, particularly in the areas of investment, industrial cooperation, technology, agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals, Maduro told reporters.

“We have already achieved a sufficiently deep degree of cooperation to advance toward industrialization on a higher technological level, with more investment both within Mercosur (a regional trade bloc) and in our bilateral relationship with Brazil,” he said.

Maduro said he discussed with Rousseff the sharp drop in international oil prices, which is hurting Venezuela’s petroleum-driven economy.

The fall in oil prices, Maduro said, gives his government a chance to “motivate the whole nation” behind his plan to diversify Venezuela’s economy and win the “economic war” being waged against his country.

During their half-hour meeting, Rousseff and Maduro agreed to resume the practice of quarterly bilateral discussions, which was started by their respective predecessors, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and the late Hugo Chavez, but has lapsed in recent years.

Maduro thanked Rousseff for Brazil’s solidarity in condemning U.S. sanctions against high-ranking Venezuelan officials.

Brazil joined in a resolution issued Thursday by the Union of South American Nations.

Washington recently imposed sanctions against Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations in Caracas’ clampdown on opposition demonstrations early in 2014.

Violence associated with the protests left more than 40 people dead, including both supporters and opponents of the government as well as police and bystanders.

The Venezuelan Attorney General’s office is prosecuting more than a dozen members of the security forces in connection with the fatalities.