MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN)- Russia will complete the withdrawal of its contingent from the military and naval base in Cam Rahn, Vietnam by July 1, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Interfax on Thursday.
Yakovenko recalled that "there is an agreement that Russia's lease of the Cam Rahn base will expire on July 1, 2002."
Yakovenko said that "the legalization of this agreement is being completed at the moment. As far as the timeframe for our contingent's withdrawal is concerned, we will strictly adhere to it," the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman said.
President Vladimir Putin made the first official statement on the beginning of the base's withdrawal from Cam Ranh in October 2001. The statement said that the pull-out would begin on January 1, 2002.
According to open Western media, Cam Ranh in 1984 was Moscow's biggest overseas base outside the Warsaw Pact with a staff of up to 5,000, including operating personnel.
Hanoi allowed its ally the former Soviet Union to use the base rent-free from 1979 - a time of worsening ties with China. The lease of Russia's only base in the country runs out in 2004.
Vietnam requested the revision of earlier accords in 1998. Saying that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and supplies of arms and hardware to Vietnam stopped the same year, Hanoi demanded that Moscow paid a yearly rent of USD300m.
The Vietnamese party has repeatedly announced that the Cam Ranh base will be used only in national interests after Russia's pull-out.
After the Cam Ranh base is disbanded, Russia will retain its only overseas base in the Syrian port of Tatrus, where a floating workshop servicing both Russian and Syrian vessels is located.