Sukhoi Su-30MK2 (photo : Knaapo)MOSCOW: Russia will supply Vietnam with 12 SU-30MK2 fighter jets and aviation equipment worth a total of about one billion dollars, a military-diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday.
“Last week, a contract was signed to supply Vietnam with 12 more SU-30MK2 fighter planes. The planes will be supplied in 2011 and 2012,” the source was quoted as saying.
“The contract also calls for the supply of various aviation arms, equipment and parts,” the source said, putting the overall value of the deal at one billion dollars (727 million euros).
Vietnam is a major customer of Russia’s Sukhoi fighter jets. It previously signed a contract in early 2009 to buy eight SU-30MK2 planes, the source said.
The report came a day after industry sources in Vietnam said that Hanoi had decided to award Russia’s state atomic energy firm a coveted contract to build the southeast Asian country’s first nuclear power plant.
Vietnam signed a defence agreement with Russia in December during a visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Moscow. Interfax reported at the time that Hanoi had agreed to buy six diesel-electric submarines for two billion dollars.
Russia and Vietnam have a long history of cooperation. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 the Soviet Union supplied its Communist ally with vital aid and arms.
Vietnam officially remains one of the world’s last communist countries, but it has embraced a market economy along with Asian and Western investment over the past two decades.
In recent years Russian influence in Vietnam has begun to grow again but remains far below that of Soviet times. --AFP