KWIC Moscow October 22: It is the first time for the Russian defence minister to make visits to China, India, and Vietnam simultaneously after the cold war ended. These visits do demonstrate Russia's wish to resume and strengthen its political impact on this region through military cooperation. Sergeev's visit to Vietnam ended up with the signing of a governmental agreement on the cooperation in military technology. Through this visit, Russia also obtained the permission to continue to station its army at the Kimlan Bay until the year 2004. Vietnam has now signed a contract on the purchase of 26 SU27 fighter planes. It also hopes to rely on Russia to upgrade its large number of MiG21 planes. In India, Sergeev discussed the agreement on the 10-year military cooperation (until the year 2010) between Russia and India. It is expected that this agreement will be officially signed in December

Obviously, these visits were intended to balance the development of Russia's military relationships with these countries. Of course, China is unhappy about what Russia did in India and Vietnam. Russia will profit from the sales of its advanced military equipment at the same time to these three countries that regard each other as adversaries. The sales will trigger an armament race in this region. There are indications that the main purpose for Sergeev's visit to China is to promote and determine the principles and topics on the bilateral exchange of military technology in the year of 1999. Another purpose is to review the past work. It is not likely that during this visit, these two countries will sign any agreement on the sales of the SU30 multi-functional fighter planes. This is because in September, a source of Russian military industry confirmed with KWIC that such a talk was resumed this summer. The two countries are still bargaining with each other about the prices, weapon types, and technical indices. It seems that China is using its "Marathon" tactic again in order to achieve the maximum benefit. The talk on the sales of the SU30 planes began in 1996. The items involved in the talk at that time included the Tunguska air defence system with a combined use of missiles and cannons, the T80U tanks, and the Tor-M1 ground-to-air missiles.

It is estimated that the weapon systems that are most likely discussed at the meetings during Sergeev's visit to China include the Tungska air defence system to be delivered to China in 1999 and more Tor-M1 air defence missiles. ( Satoko Tomiyama)

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