Colombia Seeks Russian Reassurance Over Venezuela

Moscow is sending a nuclear-powered battle cruiser and escort ships to the Caribbean to conduct war games with the Venezuelans.

Concerned by Russia's sudden closeness to its historic rival Venezuela, Colombia is reactivating dormant defence deals with Moscow and promoting trade, investment and diplomacy with the Russians.

A close U.S. military ally, Colombia has watched with concern as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has courted Moscow on numerous visits, bought Russian weapons and invited Russian planes and warships to visit his country.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos told Reuters at the end of a week-long visit to Russia that he had sought explanations from Russian officials about joint naval exercises planned with Venezuela next month in the Caribbean.

In a show of naval force unprecedented in the region since the Cold War, Moscow is sending a nuclear-powered battle cruiser and escort ships to the Caribbean to conduct war games with the Venezuelans.

"They explained to us that there was no intention to make any kind of show of force," Santos said in an interview. "Just that the manoeuvres were to train their own Russian personnel in long-distance situations."

Santos, tipped as a possible presidential candidate in Colombia's 2010 elections, said he also raised Bogota's concerns that Russian weapons sold to Venezuela could end up in the hands of Marxist guerrillas fighting the Colombian government.

"We handed some documents to the Russian authorities which show the intentions of the FARC (guerrillas) to obtain arms from Russia," he said in the interview, conducted on Friday night.

"They told us they ... could assure us that their controls would not allow any kind of arms to end up in the hands of the FARC terrorists, that they condemn terrorism and that they have condemned the FARC as terrorists".

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has been fighting the Bogota government since the 1960s. President Alvaro Uribe has scored major military successes against the movement, but it still controls some remote areas.

Santos, the first Colombian defence minister to visit Moscow, said he agreed with Russian officials to reactivate a 1996 military co-operation agreement between Bogota and Moscow.

The two sides had agreed to shift some maintenance of Russian-made military helicopters to Colombia and to study the possibility of Colombia making some Russian-designed armoured vehicles, he said.

"We are very interested in developing our military industry," Santos said.

His visit follows a trip to Moscow by Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos at the end of May. Bogota is now working on a possible visit in March or April of next year by President Uribe.

Russia had explained that its diplomatic relations in Latin America were "multilateral and pragmatic", Santos said.

"We said we have quite a similar approach, we keep good relations with the United States -- very good -- and also with Cuba."