Russia 100304 Basic Political Developments

RIA: Russia, India to sign $4 billion military technical cooperation contracts

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100304/158089800.html
11:4504/03/2010

Russia and India are expected to sign three contracts in military technical cooperation totaling $4 billion, including retrofitting the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India, Vedomosti Russian daily reported.

A $2.35-billion contract between Russia's state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Defense Ministry on refitting the INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) and the $1.2-billion contract on delivery of MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters will be signed during Putin's visit to India on March 11-12.

The Vikramaditya is currently undergoing repairs and refit at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.

The initial refit agreement of $970 million went up to additional $1.5 billion India is expected to allocate to Sevmash shipyard which already expended the money that was allocated for the Vikramaditya's refit.

DNA India said that the countries might also sign an agreement on nuclear reactors in Kudankulam and in Haripur, a new nuclear park in West Bengal.

Further agreements will include fifth generation fighter aircraft project developed jointly by both countries, and work on a multi-role transport aircraft.

India has a long history of defense relations with Moscow. The current cooperation program until 2010 comprises about 200 joint projects, including the modernization of the Vikramaditya for the Indian Navy, the transfer of technology for the licensed assembly of T-90 tanks in India, the production of BrahMos missiles and the purchase of Smerch MLRS by India.

MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: NATO plans military exercises near Russian border

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100304/158089565.html
11:2504/03/2010

NATO has announced it will hold military exercises involving fighter planes over the Baltic Sea this month, the first in a series of military drills to be held this year near the Russian border.

The Baltic Region Training Event training mission will take place over the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and will involve French Mirage 2000C, Polish F-16, and Lithuanian L-39 Albatross fighters, along with U.S. aerial tankers.

The exercises will demonstrate "NATO solidarity and commitment to its member countries in the Baltic region," a spokesman for the Allied Air Headquarters said.

The military events will continue in June in northern Estonia, where up to 500 U.S. Marines and Estonian soldiers will be involved in a ten-day drills about a hundred km from the Russian border, Russia's Kommersant daily said on Thursday.

Another joint military exercise of NATO and the Baltic states will be held in Latvia this autumn. Involving over 2,000 personnel from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the U.S., the exercise will be the largest in the area since the three countries joined the alliance in 2004.

Leaders of the three former Soviet Baltic states have repeatedly spoken in favor of large-scale military exercises in the region with the participation of NATO's European contingent since the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.

Their concerns seemed to be further aggravated by the Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2009 exercises, held last September in Belarus. Some Baltic politicians said the drills, involving around 13,000 service personnel, 63 airplanes, 40 helicopters, 470 infantry fighting vehicles, 228 tanks and 234 artillery pieces, were to train "various plans of assault" on some Baltic states, Kommersant said.

Russia's deal to buy four Mistral warships from France also caused a stir in Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Polish military circles. The deal, if concluded, will be the first-ever military sale to Russia by a NATO country.

The NATO spokesman said however there was "no relationship between our training event and the potential Mistral deal."

MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti)

RIA: Cooperation with Russia should become NATO's top priority — report

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100304/158087087.html
03:4404/03/2010

Closer cooperation with Russia should become a major foreign policy priority for NATO, but better relations with Moscow cannot come at the expense of the security of eastern European alliance members, an influential U.S. foreign policy research center has said.

A report titled The Future of NATO, which provides an expert view of alliance's foreign policies, was issued by the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.

NATO is currently preparing its new strategic plan, due to be released in November. The Council named the improvement of ties with Russia among its three recommendations for aliance's foreign policies. The main recommendations are to maintain the idea of NATO's values in Europ, and to develop partnership with the European Union and democratic countries which are not members of the alliance.

"The core problem in NATO-Russia relations can be summed up quite simply: NATO will not allow Russia to have a veto over alliance decisions, while Russia believes it is a great power deserving a full voice in European security affairs. Because NATO has been able to pursue policies despite Russian objections, it has done so, breeding further resentment from Moscow every time," the report said.

According to the report, "NATO has sought to create security and stability throughout eastern Europe", while Russia "has sown discord and instability in places such as Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia in order to increase its influence and prevent further encroachment by NATO."

NATO froze ties with Russia following the August 2008 armed conflict with Georgia and the recognition by Moscow of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

However, Russia-NATO ties have improved in recent months as a result of a course towards "resetting" thorny relations between Moscow and Washington taken by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

The report said that the ability of NATO and the United States to collaborate with Russia "will depend heavily on how Russia understands the "reset" of relations sought by the Obama administration."

Pointing to Russia's position over tougher sanctions against Iran, which is suspected by Western powers of attempting to develop nuclear weapons, the organization said "each time President Dmitri Medvedev has hinted at support for tough sanctions, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has thrown cold water on the idea."

Medvedev said on March 1 he did not rule out that Moscow would back sanctions against Iran, but added that if were used, they should be a "balanced" last resort.

In late January, the Russian and NATO chiefs of staff met in Brussels for the first time since their relations became warmer. As a result of the talks, a framework military cooperation treaty was approved, which is seen as an important step toward the restoration of military ties between Russia and the alliance.

The report said the NATO-Russia Council "appears ready to expand the number of joint exercises and training operations to deal with issues such as terrorism and nuclear safety."

"If Europeans can manage to fulfill their commitments to the NATO response force, then NATO could propose a joint NATO-Russia response force to manage emergency situations across the region," it stated.

The Council also advised NATO to "take seriously contingency planning for the protection of the Baltic states, particularly Estonia and Latvia, while recognizing that transparency is essential to assure the Russians these efforts are purely defensive."

Obama scrapped plans last year for interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic pursued by his predecessor as protection against possible Iranian strikes in an apparent move to ease Russian security concerns.

In February, however, Romania and Bulgaria said they were in talks with the Obama administration on deploying elements of the U.S. missile shield on their territories from 2015, triggering an angry reaction from Moscow.

NEW YORK, March 4 (RIA Novosti)