Chavez to sign 2-billion-dollar military deal in Moscow: Report12 May 2008, 0940 hrs IST,AFP
MOSCOW: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will buy military equipment worth nearly two billion dollars during a visit to Russia at the end of the month, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Monday.
"Hugo Chavez will arrive in Moscow at the end of May to sign new Russian-Venezuelan agreements on military and technical cooperation," said the paper.
Chavez and new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in March, during a telephone conversation, to visit each other.
"The accords with Venezuela will obviously be the first big arms contracts signed under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev," the paper said, adding that his predecessor Vladimir Putin had paid special attention to military and technical cooperation in international relations.
During Putin's eight-year presidency Russian arms exports jumped from 3.68 billion dollars in 2000 to nearly 7.5 billion last year, according to the paper.
This year, Venezuela is to buy 10 Russian-made Ilyushin 76MD-90 military cargo aircraft, two Ilyushin-78MK tankers, up to 10 Mi-28NE Night Hunter attack helicopters, as well as four Russian Type 636 attack submarines, said Kommersant .
"The total value of the contracts on military and technical cooperation could therefore reach two billion dollars, it added.
Russia has already sold 24 Sukhoi military fighter aircraft, 53 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles to Venezuela, its top military client in Latin America, for a total value of more than three billion dollars.
Source
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Chavez_to_sign_two-billion-dollars_military_deal_in_Moscow_Report/articleshow/3031339.cms
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