BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/06/2007

Chavez to Visit Iran, Russia, Belarus

CARACAS, June 25--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez embarks on a tour this week that will take him to Iran, Russia and Belarus.

Chavez departs Tuesday for his week-long tour, from June 26 to July 3, insisting that he will purchase Russian submarines and possibly an air defense system from Belarus, despite vocal objections from Washington.

Chavez has said he hopes to put the "finishing touches" on an agreement to purchase from Belarus an integrated air defense system with a 200-300-kilometer range.

President Chavez has insisted that any purchases of Russian submarines or an air defense system from Belarus were none of the US' business, but Venezuela's alone.

In an address to some 15,000 young members of his new party now being set up, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Chavez said some had the idea his trip to Russia would complicate US-Russian relations.

"In the United States, they say my trip to Moscow is a concern and that they don't look favorably on my meeting with the president, my friend Vladimir Putin," Chavez said.

He said media reports on a potential US-Venezuelan clash over arms were "trying to interfere in Russia and Venezuela relations, which are deep and strategic".

"These relations are highly strategic, and are tied up with our security, defense and overall development," Chavez added.

Relations between Russia and the United States are at a post-Cold War low due to political and security differences.

Specifically, Moscow and Washington have traded barbs about a US plan to place interceptor missiles in Poland and elements of a linked radar system in the Czech Republic.

Media reports in Moscow this month said Chavez wanted to buy as many as nine submarines to protect shipping lanes for key oil exports.

In 2006, Venezuela signed more than three billion dollars in contracts with Russia to buy 53 Mi-24 armored helicopter gunships, Sukhoi 30 fighter planes and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Chavez's visit to Iran, Belarus and Russia has preempted his attendance at the June 28-30 summit in Asuncion of the Mercosur trade bloc -- a group that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Source:

http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.asp?newsid=041030120070625081744