Russia 'ready to help' Venezuela as Donald Trump beefs up his Navy

 Russia has pledged to be "ready" to help Venezuela as Donald Trump continues to reinforce the US military presence near the South American nation.

The White House is forging ahead with plans for a strike campaign it says its crackdown on drug smugglers but experts have said the attacks on drug boats would be illegal under international law.

Caracas and Moscow signed a strategic partnership in May and the Kremlin says that means it's ready to act. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was "ready to fully act within the framework of the obligations that were mutually stipulated in this agreement with our Venezuelan friends".

The agreement hasn't yet come into force but is "getting close," Lavrov with the leaders of both countries having ratified the strategic partnership.

"Now it is at the final stage of ratification [by the Russian Legislature]," Lavrov said, Tass reported. "It states the need to continue our security cooperation, including military-technical cooperation."

America's overwhelming show of force in waters close to Venezuela was ramped up with the arrival of the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R, Ford earlier this week. Three warships are also in the area, raising questions about whether Trump hopes to topple Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela has not requested military assistance or that Russian weapons be deployed in the country, Lavrov said. But a senior Russian official suggested this month that Russia could send Venezuela its experimental Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, which Moscow used to strike central Ukraine a year ago.