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Russia negotiating military deal with PH
Russia is currently negotiating an agreement of technical military cooperation with the Philippines amid brewing tensions in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) between Manila and Beijing.
“We fully understand the problems Philippines has to face with its huge maritime border,” the visiting Deputy Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Konstantin Biryulin, told Manila Bulletin in an exclusive interview Friday. “We have similar problems in Russia and we know how to tackle them. That’s why we have a proposal regarding equipments which could help in controlling those areas.”
Aside from finding ways of economic cooperation and further development of Russian-Philippine relations, Biryulin said one of the purposes of his visit is to negotiate military technical cooperation with the Department of National Defense (DND). Such cooperation may include, in particular, Russian sale of military hardware.
“Unfortunately our attempt has not yet brought any fruitful and desirable result,” he noted. Russia has in fact earlier bided for the supply of fighter jets to the Philippines, a contract bagged by a Korean firm.
According to Biryulin, both sides have agreed to hold another round of consultations on military cooperation in Russia so that they could “adjust our position.”
“We need to consider the opinion of different Russian agencies because the scope of responsibilities of your DND is much wider than the Russian ministry of defense,” he pointed out. “Because here for example, you also tackle the issue of emergency response.”
He said military equipment that Russia could consider offering to the Philippines include “supplies of radar stations and means of intercepting and destruction of violators.” (Roy C. Mabasa)
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