An Arms Deal for More than Weapons
// The price of the question
One of the topics of talks during Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon will be military-technical cooperation between our two countries. Today that cooperation is insignificant. In the last five years, Russia has supplied Colombia only with a few Mi-17 helicopters. That is in sharp comparison to the $3-billion package of military hardware delivered to its neighbor Venezuela, which includes 24 Su-30MK2V fighter jets, among other things. Relations between the two Latin American countries are practically hostile. Pragmatic Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez is waging an endless war against Marxist rebel groups with American support. Venezuela’s indefatigable populist President Hugo Chavez openly supports the Colombian partisans and calls on Latin American for a “crusade” against the United States.
Latin America was the exclusive sphere of influence of the U.S. for a long time, so the USSR’s presence on the arms market there was determined by political factors during the Cold War. First it supported the Cuban Revolution, then the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Economic benefit was not a consideration.
Paradoxically, the situation today is reminiscent of those times. Russia, the successor state to the USSR, is arming Venezuela, the main opponent of the U.S. in the Southern hemisphere. American military aid (about $600 million per year) helps Colombia maintain the military balance with its unpredictable neighbor. The U.S. political establishment is in an uproar saying that the Latin American situation is part of a general tendency in Russia’s restoration as a great power and the Kremlin’s desire to come into conflict with the U.S. in any corner of the world.
There is no political subtext, however. There are only financial interests. The U.S. lost that lucrative market when it imposed an arms embargo on Venezuela in 2005. Chavez was forced to search for new suppliers. On the other hand, the opening of the Latin American market was essential for the development of the Russian military industrial complex. The Chinese and Indian arms markets, long the main centers of Russian military supplying, were saturated and cooperation with those countries was gradually shifting to high technology. Now, Russian arms makers see Southeast Asia, North Africa and Latin America, where reliable and not excessively expensive arms are needed, as the most promising regions for them.
In that connection, the visit of the Colombian vice president and the possible conclusion of deals for military supplies are a confirmation that, in Latin America, Russia has no priorities other than economic. There question is something else. Will the Americans let their ally make those deals? There is fierce competition on the arms market. An arms deal with Russia would be a real breakthrough for Uribe. It would strengthen his position as a president who makes decisions independently and for whom the Americans are only allies. As Latin America turns leftward, that has a high value.
Ivan Konovalov, deputy director of the Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technology
All the Article in Russian as of May 27, 2008
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