Venezuela To Double Number Of Tanks, Boost Defenses – Chavez

[Ryan Ruck]

Venezuela To Double Number Of Tanks, Boost Defenses – Chavez

President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela will at least double the number of tanks in its military and continue strengthening its defense capability, the state-run ABN news agency reported.

"We are going to buy more tanks to have an armored force at least twice the size of what we have today," Chavez said on national television on Thursday.

"We need to strengthen our forces on land, at sea, and in the air and we are going to continue doing that," he added.

The leftist president's announcement comes shortly after neighboring Colombia offered to accommodate more U.S. troops at its air and naval bases, which Chavez said was a serious threat to Venezuela's national security.

The Venezuelan army currently has more than 80 outdated French-made AMX-30 main battle tanks and several dozen AMX-13C light tanks.

Chavez, who has spent billions of dollars on weapons from Russia in recent years, confirmed that Caracas and Moscow were in talks to purchase Russian T-90 main battle tanks among other military equipment.

Between 2005 and 2007 Russia signed 12 contracts worth more than $4.4 billion to supply arms to Venezuela, including fighter jets, helicopters and Kalashnikov assault rifles.

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Chavez expected to discuss arms deals in Moscow


By NATALIYA VASILYEVA (AP) – 1 day ago

MOSCOW — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is set to arrive in Russia on Wednesday on a visit expected to focus on energy issues and military cooperation.

Russia has forged close ties with Venezuela as part of efforts to expand its global clout and counter U.S. influence in Latin America.

Venezuela hosted Russian warships and bombers for joint maneuvers last fall, and has become a leading customer for Russian arms makers. It has purchased more than $4 billion in Russian weapons since 2005, including Sukhoi fighter jets, helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Russian media reports claimed that new contracts for Russian submarines and tanks may be discussed during Chavez's visit, which includes meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev's spokeswoman Nataliya Timakova said no weapons deals were expected to be signed after the talks, but Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Sergei Prikhodko told reporters that Russia and Venezuela were to sign an agreement on military cooperation. The document envisions training military personnel and exchanges of information, he said.

The talks also will likely focus on energy projects, such as a plan to jointly develop a huge oil deposit in Venezuela's Orinoco River region.

A consortium of several Russian oil majors including Lukoil and TNK-BP are going to team up with Venezuelan national oil company Petroleos to develop one block of the huge oil field in the Orinoco River Basin, which has been recognized as the world's single-largest oil deposit, potentially holding 1.2 trillion barrels of extra-heavy crude.

While financing would come from the Russian consortium, the Kremlin is to support the venture by creating a Russian-Venezuelan bank and providing necessary equipment.

Vagit Alekperov, chief executive of Lukoil said earlier that the deal could be signed during Chavez's visit, but the Russian government point man in charge of relations with Venezuela, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, wouldn't confirm that Wednesday.

Prikhodko said Wednesday that the two presidents would oversee the signing of an infrastructure deal between Petroleos and Russian pipeline monopolist Transneft for oil projects in the Orinoco River Basin. He made no mention of the deal with the Russian investors' consortium, however.

Prikhodko also indicated that Russia would not immediately push forward with earlier-planned ambitious pipeline projects in Venezuela.

Shirvani Abdullayev, an oil and gas analyst at Alfa Bank in Moscow, said that the Russians are still very cautious about the Venezuelan projects.

"The terms of the deal are still unclear, and it's unclear whether producing in Venezuela is going to be more profitable than in Russia."

As a sign of such caution the Russian companies are forming a consortium aimed to spread out the risks.

"No one wants to take on leadership or risks," Abdullayev said. "If the projects were truly commercially attractive, we would see one company taking up one oil field and all the obligations. "

In the gas sector, the first Venezuelan-Russian offshore project in the Gulf of Venezuela was inaugurated in November to start producing gas within four to five years. The Gulf of Venezuela is home to 27 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Venezuela has South America's largest natural gas reserves, but they have remained largely untapped while the country has focused on oil production.

Chavez is on a world tour, taking in several continents.

On Wednesday, Chavez ended a two-day visit to former Soviet Belarus, where he and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko struck a range of agreements including a memorandum on energy co-operation.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Russia to supply Venezuela with tanks as Chavez recognises Ossestia as independent state

heraldscotland staff
10 Sep 2009

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday recognised the pro-Russian rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, a rare boost to the Kremlin’s campaign for their international acceptance

President Dmitry Medvedev thanked Chavez, who is visiting Moscow, for his support. Shortly afterwards, state news agency RIA reported that Russia had agreed to supply tanks and other weapons sought by Venezuela.

Until Chavez’s decision, only Nicaragua had followed the Kremlin’s August 2008 decision to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states following a brief war with Georgia over South Ossetia.

The rest of the world views the two regions, which threw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s and have run their own affairs since, as an integral part of Georgia. The issue has become a key sticking point in relations between the West and Russia.

"Venezuela from today is joining in the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Chavez told Medvedev through a translator at the Russian president’s official residence at Barvikha, outside Moscow.

Caracas would start the process of establishing diplomatic relations with them soon, he said.

"Thank you, Hugo", said Medvedev. "We are not indifferent to the fate of these two states. I would like to thank you for taking such a decision."

RIA later quoted Medvedev as saying that "Russia will supply Venezuela those types of weapons which Venezuela asks us for. We will supply tanks, we have good tanks."

The agency later quoted a military source as saying Venezuela would buy 100 tanks.

Chavez has said Venezuela wants to beef up its weaponry to resist what he terms U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Tension has also been rising with Caracas’s historic rival Colombia, a close U.S. ally.

The recognition is especially controversial in the case of South Ossetia because the small region has a population in the low tens of thousands and can only survive on Russian aid.

Generous Kremlin military and financial support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia has soured relations with Georgia and provoked Western condemnation. Tbilisi argues that Moscow’s actions amount to a de facto annexation of the territories.

Moscow’s allies in the former Soviet Union, fearful of setting precedents which could threaten their own sovereignty, have so far resisted pressure to recognise the rebel regions, making Venezuela’s decision something of a breakthrough for Kremlin diplomacy.

"Russia has been trying for a year to provide these puppet regimes with legitimacy," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov told Reuters.

"It should be clear to the Russian side that such actions won’t add legitimacy to these puppet regimes," he said.

"Russian diplomacy will interpret this as a big diplomatic victory," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magzine Russia in Global Affairs.

Latin American nations are more likely to worry about an increase in regional tension.

Venezuela and Colombia came close to war last year and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has accused Chavez of supporting FARC Marxist rebels fighting Bogota.

Chavez will hold talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later on Thursday.

Putin’s deputy, Igor Sechin, told reporters on Wednesday that a deal between Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and a consortium of Russian companies to develop a block in the Orinoco oil belt would be signed soon.

The Russian consortium includes Rosneft ROSN.MM, Gazprom GAZP.MM, Lukoil LKOH.MM, TNK-BP TNBPI.RTS and Surgutneftegaz SNGS.MM.

Cooperation between Russia, the world’s No. 2 oil exporter, and OPEC member Venezuela has been dismissed by the United States as mostly talk but is watched with concern by Colombia, which has stormy ties with its neighbour.