MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine says “nyet” to arms

“The Argentine government is not considering the purchase of military equipment but to strengthen technical and military cooperation with Russia,” Garré told reporters according to Argentina's state-run Telam news agency.

The meeting was "highly satisfactory and productive but at no time they discussed the purchase of weapons," Garré's spokesman Jorge Bernetti told Télam.

"I emphatically deny that Minister of Defense (Garré) may have discussed the possibility of an arms sale," Bernetti told AP in Buenos Aires from Moscow. "I repeat that what the minister has proposed is an invitation for the Russian defence industry to take part in the next tender for the purchase of four 3D radars that will be sued for the control of Argentina's air space.

The Itar-Tass Russian news agency yesterday quoted Ivanov as saying that Argentina had handed Russia a shopping list of military hardware it wants to buy.

Russia has defied the United States to sell more than 3 billion dollars in arms to Venezuela, whose populist President Hugo Chávez visited Russia in July. Russia is supplying Venezuela with Sukhoi warplanes and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Argentine President Néstor Kirchner has close ties with Chávez, who is in fierce confrontation with the US.

"We cannot fully satisfy the demands of our armed forces... Russia understands our difficulties," said Garré, according to Itar-Tass. "Buenos Aires is not worried about a negative reaction from the US about possible purchases of Russian arms. I consider that arms purchases are the sovereign affair of every country," Garré added.

Argentina was interested in Russian air defences and helicopters as well as equipment for civilian air traffic control, RIA news agency quoted Garré as saying. "The possible decision to buy military and weapons equipment will depend, among other things, on the conditions by which the Russian side will be ready to sign a contract with us," she was quoted as saying.

Before the meeting between Garré and Ivanov, the Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Russian defence official as saying that Russia was considering selling heavy weaponry as well as military jets, helicopters and anti-missile systems to Argentina.

Interfax cited an unidentified Russian defence official as saying that the Argentine armed forces possessed outdated weapons, mainly US- and European-made, and that Russia was ready to upgrade them as well as train military personnel, the official added.

At a recent weapons exhibit, Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport had offered Argentina the delivery of armoured personnel carriers, tanks, rocket launchers, fighter jets and military helicopters, as well as anti-missile defence systems, Interfax said.

Garré is visiting Russia as part of a tour that started in France and will also include the Ukraine and Cyprus, before returning to Argentina on November 2.

On her first official day in Russia, Thursday, she met with Russian Technical and Military Cooperation Director Mijail Dmitriev.

Garré and Dmitriev decided to call a first meeting of the technical Committee in charge of tracking the cooperation accord that both countries signed in 2004.

The Lower House of the Argentine Congress on Wednesday approved that accord that had been already passed in the Senate.

Jorge Argüello, a staunch supporter of President Kirchner and head of the Lower House's foreign relations committee, said the accord was signed as part of Kirchner's policy "that envisages no conflict hypothesis but just a defensive policy."

Argentina is scheduled to hold similar cooperation talks with Britain in December and with France in the first half of next year. Buenos Aires Herald