Original source URL: http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10215824&PageNum=0 Venezuela president praises highly military cooperation with Russia 15.06.2006, 09.47 CARACAS, June 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised highly the development of military-technical cooperation with Russia. The president has made a statement at the solemn handover ceremony of 30,000 Russian submachine guns AK-103 to the Venezuelan army on Wednesday. The Russian arms exporting company Rosoboronexport will supply 100,000 submachine guns of the kind to Venezuela this year. The Venezuelan president called this day historical, as, according to him, it is not a simple replacement of outdated weapons, but a new concept of the construction of the armed forces. ³Today we became independent, as cooperation with Russia envisages not only the supplies of weapons, but also the transfer of advanced military technologies. No country provided such rights to Venezuela earlier,² Chavez emphasized. In this connection, he spoke about the plans to open a licensed production of Kalashnikov new-generation assault rifles and ammunition for them. The conclusion of contracts with Rosoboronexport for the construction of two plants in the Venezuelan city of Maracay is at the final stage, the president pointed out. For the modernization of the Venezuelan Air Force it was decided to buy in Russia modern fighters Su-30, Chavez remarked. He noted that these fighters are the best in the world for their flying and tactical faculties. The president also spoke about the plans to buy a big batch of helicopters for the Air Force, the Navy and the Venezuelan National Guard. Chavez recalled that for the renovation of the air fleet Venezuela has already signed contracts with Rosoboronexport for the supply of 33 various models of military helicopters for the Venezuelan Ground Troops. The largest in South America helicopter maintenance center is planned to be set up in Venezuela. Aircraft and modern firearms of Russian production are bought under the programme adopted by the Venezuelan government for the modernization of the armed forces in order to ensure security and defence capacity of the South American country. © ITAR-TASS. All right reserved. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
