COLORADO SPRINGS, USA. Oct 10 (Interfax-AVN) -Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov is flying to Brazil on Friday from Colorado Springs where he attended an informal meeting with his NATO counterparts.
During the three-day visit, he is expected to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Defense Minister Jose Viegas.
Discussions will focus on the present state and prospects of military-technical cooperation in the framework of an intergovernmental memorandum on interaction in defense technologies signed in Moscow in April 2002.
They will also express their views on the military-political situation in the Middle East, the aggravation of the situation in and around Iraq and the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.
Ivanov told reporters before the visit that the two countries' views on many current problems of regional and global security are close or identical. "They stem from the understanding that only a multipolar world system largely relying on the activities of international institutions, primarily the United Nations, can guarantee strategic stability in the world today," Ivanov said.
Mikhail Dmitriyev, Ivanov's deputy and chairman of the Russian Committee for Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States, told Interfax-Military News Agency that Russia and Brazil are negotiating a possible contract for up to 20 SU or MIG warplanes for the Brazilian Air Force. "The value of the contract may reach USD1bn," he said.
Meanwhile, at the Defense Ministry, Interfax was told that the delivery of 18-22 SU-35 Flanker fighter aircraft, the training of Brazilian air force pilots and the formation of a maintenance service network for the warplanes would be discussed.