Russia to expand arms sales in SE Asia
By Dwi Atmanta
DENPASAR (JP): Russia is looking to expand its military equipment market in Southeast Asia, the head of the Russian parliamentary delegation to an international meeting, Sergey Boshkolov, said here yesterday.
Speaking after his meeting with the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO), Boshkolov said Russia would boost its promotion of conventional weapons and other high-technology products.
"It's good to see Russia play a bigger role in arm sales in the region, and it looks that our prospects in other business fields is becoming greater," Boshkolov said.
Boshkolov is deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament's commission on security and defense.
He said trade between Russia and Southeast Asian countries had increased five times in just two years from US$600 million in 1994 to $3 billion last year.
"We are now searching for a harmonious relationship in trade, including how to drop the double taxation imposed on imported and exported commodities," he said.
The Russian delegation is here to attend the 18th AIPO general assembly which ends today. Russia is one of ASEAN's dialog partners.
Other dialog meetings yesterday were held between AIPO and South Korea, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
On Wednesday AIPO met with Australia, China, Cambodia, the European Parliament and Japan.
Boshkolov said the Russian parliament hailed Indonesia's decision to buy Sukhoi Su-30M and "fully understands the terms of payment proposed by Indonesia".
"There are no substantial problems in our negotiations now underway except some technical matters," he said.
He said Indonesia would pay 20 percent of the Sukhoi purchase from its foreign exchange earnings, while the rest would be covered by the barter of industrial goods and commodities.
An Su-30Ms costs $34 million, $4 million more than the American-made F-16s offered to Indonesia last year.
Indonesia dropped its plan to buy 12 F-16s after the United States Congress began linking the sale to human rights issues.
If the Sukhoi deal is struck, Indonesia will join Vietnam and Malaysia as Southeast Asian countries which operate Russian combat planes.
Boshkolov said the sale of Su-30M had been anticipated long before Indonesia canceled its plan to buy the F-16 fleet.
He said Russia was planning to hold more exhibitions of its nonmilitary industrial products after the Sukhoi deal was finalized.
Russia took part in the 1986 and 1996 Indonesian Air Shows in Jakarta.
The general assembly yesterday also finished formulating its joint communique to be announced at today's closing ceremony.
Marsetio Donosumarto, who chaired the commission to formulate the joint communique, said AIPO had agreed on a resolution to strengthen regional monetary and financial resilience in response to the currency crisis that has hit Southeast Asia.
He said Indonesian delegates were referring to President Soeharto's Aug. 16 state-of-the-nation speech when they proposed the resolution.
"In fact, all AIPO delegates shared the same idea as ours, because they are suffering from the monetary turmoil," Marsetio said.
The Philippines earlier proposed a resolution which promoted regulatory and supervisory cooperation among ASEAN countries through the establishment of a hot-line linking financial markets to consultation and information exchanges.
Another resolution says that AIPO agrees to the Philippines' proposal to set up an antinarcotics task force based in Manila.
Marsetio said the assembly endorsed the unprecedented proposal after the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore supported the draft.