Written by Humberto Márquez
Friday, 28 November 2008 14:22
Faxts.com
CARACAS, Nov 28 (IPS) - Aboard the Russian submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, docked at the port of La Guaira, 20 km north of Caracas, Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced the start of joint naval manoeuvres Thursday in the Caribbean.
The week-long war games, in which the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, the largest non-aircraft-carrier in the world, is taking part, mark the return of Russian warships to the Caribbean for the first time since the Cold War era, when the Soviet Union had close ties with Cuba.
But Medvedev’s visit this week to Peru, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba seems motivated by economic, trade and investment interests and by sales of technology and arms more than by joint military exercises.
”The Russians have come here with a view to sales, to earn money in this part of the world, where the prices of their weapons appear to be competitive,” Rocío San Miguel, who heads the Venezuelan citizen oversight group Asociación Civil Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional, told IPS.
In Venezuela ”the Russians have come to review the state of the contracts for six billion dollars in weapons sales signed so far, which could reach 10 billion dollars by 2015,” said San Miguel.
Venezuela has purchased or agreed to purchase Sukhoi Russian fighter jets, Mi helicopters, diesel-fueled submarines, transport planes, radar systems and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, and Russia plans to build a Kalashnikov factory and munitions plant in this South American country.
”This region is today one of the most important customers for Russian weaponry in the world. Sales climbed from 300 million dollars in 2001 to three billion dollars in 2006, and are still growing,” said Moisés Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, a bimonthly U.S. magazine published by The Washington Post Company.
”Of course U.S. support for Georgia in the recent war in the Caucasus region was an irritant, and helped prompt Moscow to show that they can also annoy the Yankees in their neighbourhood. But for the family, partners and friends of the Kremlin, those are not the accounts that really matter — it is the bank accounts,” said Naim.
Trade between Russia and Latin America has grown nearly 30 percent a year over the last three years, to a projected 15 billion dollars this year, according to Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergéi Lavrov said his country’s aim in Latin America is to boost hi-tech exports and cooperation in the fields of energy, production and transportation of gas and oil, construction machinery, the metallurgical and transportation industries, nuclear energy for peaceful uses and space exploration.
On Thursday and Friday, Medvedev was in Cuba, to strengthen ties during the first visit by a Russian president to Cuba since 2000. Russia is the Caribbean island nation’s 10th largest trading partner, and is interested in stepping up trade between the two countries, which last year amounted to 363 million dollars.
Medvedev’s tour of the region began with his participation in the Nov. 22-23 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit. He then continued on to Rio de Janeiro, where he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Russian leader praised Brazil as his country’s top trading partner in Latin America, and the two presidents signed agreements to eliminate the need for visas, which will facilitate business travel, and for further space cooperation (Russia is assisting Brazil in the development of its own satellite launch vehicle.)
Russia has a keen interest in supplying weapons to Brazil, and in cooperating in the areas of oil and gas exploration and the construction of Brazil’s gas pipeline.
Venezuela and Russia, meanwhile, have signed dozens of agreements in the last two years. Chávez visited Moscow twice in 2008, and will go again next year.
And during Medvedev’s brief visit to Caracas this week, eight more accords were signed, to facilitate the participation of Russian companies in oil exploration and production in the Orinoco Belt in southeastern Venezuela, for assistance to Venezuela’s light industry, and for cooperation in the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
”This is the time of the meeting between the great Russian fatherland and the great Latin American fatherland,” said Chávez, who decorated the Russian president with the Order of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, Venezuela’s highest award.
The presidents spoke of the interests shared by Venezuela and Russia as oil exporting countries in need of stable prices that benefit both producers and consumers.
Russia will also consider joining the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), an initiative that links Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
On Wednesday, a summit of the leaders of the ALBA countries, plus Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, announced an agreement to create a common currency, to strengthen member economies.
The signals given off by Russia indicate that it is returning to the Caribbean and Latin America ”to stay,” especially if, along with the manoeuvres that reaffirm its role as a global political player, it is able to advance towards concrete business deals that allow it to invest in the expansion and modernisation of its economy.
Last Updated ( Friday, 28 November 2008 14:25 )
