Vietnam asks Russia to help build submarine base

MOSCOW — Russia’s defense minister is being quoted by news reports as saying that Moscow will help Vietnam build a submarine base.

Anatoly Serdyukov said today according to Russian news agencies that Vietnam needs the base for the six diesel-electric submarines it ordered from Russia.

Serdyukov, who visited Vietnam earlier this week, says that the country also wants Russia to help build a ship repair yard that could service visiting Russian navy ships.

The Soviet Union provided Vietnam with billions of dollars in economic and military aid during the Cold War, but ties unraveled after the Soviet collapse. In 2003, Russia withdrew from a Soviet-era naval base in Cam Ranh Bay.

bostonherald

Vietnam tops Russia's arms client list

Vietnam is now officially Russia's biggest arms client thanks to recent orders for six Kilo-class submarines and 12 Su-30 fighter jets, according to a Moscow-based think tank.

Kilo-class submarine

Vietnam's deal for its first submarines is Russia's second-biggest contract for subs in the post-Soviet period, after a 2002 contract with China for eight submarines, said the independent Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies that monitors Russian military exports.

The analysis by CAST confirms what observers believed when the deal was signed during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's Dec. 15 visit to Moscow. Vietnam joins India, Algeria, Venezuela and China as Russia's top clients, according to an article on the Defense News Web site, which quotes the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass as the source.

The article did not, however, give any figures for sales to Vietnam.

Russia stands to make another $2 billion for maintenance and repair work, much of it carried out in Vietnam within new facilities at a naval base. Russia is also likely to construct a communications center, said CAST analyst Konstantin Makiyenko. The subs will be designed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Machine Engineering and built by the Admiralteiskiye Verfi shipyard, both in St. Petersburg.

Vietnam aims to counter China with sub deal: analysts

Vietnam's major arms deal with Russia, reported to involve the purchase of six submarines, aims to bolster claims against China over potentially resource-rich islands in the South China Sea, analysts say.

Chinese People's Liberation Army

While much of Vietnam's military hardware is antiquated, it has decided to devote substantial resources to developing an underwater fleet as concerns mount over tensions with its giant neighbour over the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos, they say.

"I think their primary rationale is to counteract the military build-up that the Chinese have had in the South China Sea," said Richard Bitzinger, a regional defence analyst with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

Vietnam and Russia signed the long-planned deal on Tuesday during a visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Moscow.

Details were not released but Russia's Interfax news agency reported that Vietnam had agreed to buy six Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines for about two billion dollars.

A Russian Navy officer stands on duty in a Kilo-class submarine

Vietnam's move is not surprising "given the concerns they have about the maritime environment, particularly in the South China Sea," said Peter Abigail, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

In the latest incident, Vietnam on Tuesday delivered a diplomatic note to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi demanding China return two fishing boats and equipment seized from Vietnamese fishermen in waters around the Paracels.

Vietnam has previously reported similar cases, and fishermen earlier this year said they were seeing an increasing number of armed Chinese patrol ships in disputed waters.

Taiwan also claims the Paracels -- which China occupies -- while the Spratlys are claimed in full or part by China and Vietnam as well as the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Graphic on the disputed Spratly islands

The sovereignty row has gone on for years. In 1988 Vietnam and China fought a brief naval battle near one of the Spratly reefs. More than 50 Vietnamese sailors died.

Two years ago a Chinese naval vessel fired at a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Spratlys, killing one sailor, reports said.

The archipelagos are considered strategic outposts with potentially vast oil and gas reserves, and rich fishing grounds.

Last week, Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnam's deputy minister of defence, called the maritime tensions "a matter of concern".

That was the most forthright assessment yet by a Vietnamese defence official on the issue, said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam specialist with the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Vinh said the issue would not lead to conflict because international law provides a basis for a resolution, and Vietnam's policy is to ensure a peaceful outcome.

But Vietnam, with a long coastline and offshore oil potential, has faced a "strategic vulnerability" which it is now trying to address, Thayer said.

In Moscow, Dung confirmed only that the arms deal included submarines along with aircraft and "military equipment".

The aircraft order involved 12 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 warplanes worth more than 500 million dollars, Russia's Vedomosti newspaper reported earlier this year.

The fighters are among the world's most advanced and could provide air cover for the surface fleet, which Vietnam is seeking to enhance with new patrol craft, analysts say.

"What they're mostly trying to do is beef up their presence," Bitzinger said.

Vietnam's submarines will help to at least give it a capability of defending its maritime interests, Thayer said.

China's modernising military has prompted concern in the United States. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said US military power in the Pacific could be undermined, and a Pentagon report said China's weaponry and aircraft could enable it to carry out extended operations into the South China Sea.

While Vietnam's prime minister was signing the deal with Russia on Tuesday, his defence minister was on a rare visit to Washington where he held talks with Gates.

A Chinese embassy official in Hanoi, when asked to comment on the submarine deal, said Vietnam, Russia, and other countries in the area "must think about peace, and peace in the South China Sea." (@AFP)

Vietnam says to buy Russian submarines, warplanes

Vietnam will buy submarines and warplanes from its former communist ally Russia, PM Tan Dung told a news conference in Moscow

Vietnam will buy submarines and warplanes from its former communist ally Russia, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

"Vietnam signed contracts for the purchases of submarines and planes from the Russian side," he said without elaborating after Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport signed an agreement to supply "special material" to the Vietnamese navy.

Interfax news agency quoted unnamed sources as saying Russia will sell Vietnam six diesel-electric submarines of "Project 636" type, more widely known under its NATO codename "Kilo", for a total of around $2 billion.

It said the submarines, known for their low noise and easy maintenance, would be built at a shipyard in St Petersburg which has undertaken to supply one submarine to Vietnam each year. A Russian government spokesman declined to comment.

Interfax quoted another unnamed Russian official as saying the two sides in Moscow had also discussed a deal for delivery of eight Sukhoi Su-30MK2 jet fighters to Vietnam.

The official told Interfax that Vietnam could buy a further 12 warplanes of this type, worth a total of some $600 million.

Vietnam is buying the weaponry at a time when disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are increasing. Vietnam said it views the disputes with concern.

Vietnam, China and other countries have longstanding competing claims of sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, including the potentially oil and gas-rich Spratly and Paracel island chains. (@Reuters)

 

Vietnam close to procure Russian submarines and fighter aircraft

Kilo Cutaway

MOSCOW | Vietnam could become a key importer of Russian weaponry if several contracts on the purchase of diesel submarines and aircraft are signed in the near future, a Russian newspaper recently reported, according to RIA Novosti.

According to the Vedomosti business daily, Moscow and Hanoi are close to sign deals on the purchase of six Kilo class diesel-electric submarines and 12 Su-30MK2 Flanker-C multirole fighters.

The submarine contract, worth an estimated $1.8 billion, includes the construction of on-shore infrastructure and training of submarine crews and will be the second largest submarine contract concluded by Russia since the Soviet era after the 2002 deal on the delivery of eight subs to China.

The Project 636 Kilo class submarine is thought to be one of the most silent submarine classes in the world. It has been specifically designed for anti-shipping and anti-submarine operations in relatively shallow waters.

Russia has built Kilo class submarines for India, China and Iran.

Vedomosti also cited sources in Russia's aircraft manufacturing industry as saying a new contract on the delivery of 12 Su-30MK2 fighter jets in addition to eight aircraft of the same type ordered by Vietnam in January 2009.

Su-30MK2 is an advanced two-seat version of the Su-27 Flanker multirole fighter with upgraded electronics and capability to launch anti-ship missiles.

The new contract could be worth at least $600 million, not including the price of on-board weaponry.

In addition, Russia could sign a deal with Vietnam on the delivery of a large number of Mi-17 helicopters, a source in the Russian Helicopters company said during the LIMA 2009 arms show in Malaysia on Wednesday.

According to Russian military analyst Konstantin Makiyenko, the new deals will push Vietnam to the top of the list of major buyers of the Russian weaponry, as the share of China and India in Russia's arms exports is gradually declining. (Original News)