Russia, Vietnam mull additional contracts on military cooperation.

HANOI, March 23 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Vietnam examine questions on
concluding additional contracts in military and technical cooperation up
to 2020, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters on
Tuesday after the talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Phung Quang Thanh.
"We held a meeting with the Vietnamese colleague. Three main questions
came under discussion. The first of them was on military and technical
cooperation. Impressive headway has been made over 2008-2009. We signed
contracts for 4.5 billion US dollars," the Russian minister said, adding
that the list of arms ordered by Vietnam includes planes Su-30MK2, missile
gunboats of the Molniya type, frigates of the Gepard type and six
submarines of 636 project.
"Questions also under examination to conclude additional contracts for
the period of up to 2020," Serdyukov said.
The minister said that the Vietnamese side displayed great interest in
Russian air defence systems during the talks. "They are interested
virtually in everything what we have: air missile systems Tor, Buk and
S-300," the minister noted. "We are ready to sell something even from our
depots (Defence Ministry).
The second question that came under discussion, was military
cooperation. "Around 14 joint events to be mounted both in the Russian and
Vietnamese territories, are planned for this year," the Russian minister
said.
Training at Russian higher educational establishments of Vietnamese
military and civil specialists is the third set of questions.
Serdyukov noted that during the talks, the Vietnamese side "requested
to help with spare tools and gadgets for Soviet-made weapons, used by
Vietnamese troops". "I requested our Vietnamese colleagues to write an
application by our departure as well as to send specialists to Russia,"
the minister explained.
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