LA GUAIRA, Venezuela - Venezuela welcomed Russian warships Nov. 25 at a northern port near Caracas for a week of joint maneuvers with its navy, an activity not seen in the region since the Cold War.

The ships, including the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and destroyer Admiral Chabankenko, arrived at La Guaira to coincide with a two-day visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Venezuela, the strongest U.S. critic in the region.

The exercises, dubbed VenRus 2008, would take first take place in dock and then at sea on December 1, Vice Adm. Luis Morales Marquez, a Venezuelan operations commander, told journalists here.

The aim was to "strengthen links of friendship and solidarity with the Russian fleet and the Bolivarian national armed forces," Marquez said.

The oil-rich nation's President Hugo Chavez said the maneuvers were not a provocation, but an exchange between "two free, sovereign countries that are getting closer," at a news conference late Monday.

"We carried out maneuvers with Brazil recently, with France, with the Netherlands and now with Russia," Chavez said.

Medvedev was due to arrive Nov. 26 and was expected to visit the ships with Chavez on Thursday, before leaving for communist Cuba.

Analysts see the Russian leader as bringing a defiant message to Washington's doorstep, in the wake of Russian outrage at U.S. plans to install a strategic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and support for the brief Georgia war in August.

"If the Venezuelans and the Russians want to have, you know, a military exercise, that's fine, but we'll obviously be watching it very closely," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Nov. 24.

"I don't think there's any question about who ... the region looks to in terms of political, economic, diplomatic and as well as military power," McCormack added.

The U.S. has expressed concern, however, about Russian arms supplies to the oil-rich OPEC country.

The two countries have signed 4.4 billion dollars in bilateral arms deals since 2005, including radars, 24 Sukhoi-30 planes, 50 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikovs.

Medvedev was expected to expand arms deals during his visit, as well as economic and energy ties, including plans for a joint civilian nuclear reactor.

Some 1,600 Russian forces traveling on four Russian ships joined 700 Venezuelans for the exercises.

Venezuela was due to mobilize three frigates, an amphibious warfare ship and eight patrol boats, as well as Sukhoi planes recently purchased from Russia.

Marquez suggested more exercises could take place in Russian waters at a later date.

"It's not difficult for us to go to those waters and it would be very interesting," Marquez said.

A Russian naval spokesman said in Moscow that the exercises would include operation planning, helping ships in distress and supplying ships on the move.

"Until a few years ago, we did a lot of maneuvers with the United States.

Now we don't do maneuvers with the United States, of course. We got out of that defense system and we're creating our own system of defense," Chavez said Nov. 24.

In September, two Tu-160 Russian strategic bombers carried out training for several days in Venezuela.

"Nations frequently exercise with each other. Russia is free to exercise peacefully with anyone that they want to exercise with," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Nov. 24.

"But also people note through these exercises the company that nations keep."

Medvedev's tour began in Peru where he signed a series of economic and political accords before traveling to regional economic powerhouse Brazil.

By BEATRIZ LECUMBERRI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Source >  Defense News | 25 nov

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