The first and much-anticipated joint naval exercises between Venezuela and Russia were successfully concluded in one day, Venezuelan state television said.
The network broadcast a report Tuesday on the exercises, which focused on anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations, among other activities, showing images of the fireworks launched at the end of the maneuvers and of Venezuelan sailors using their hats to wave goodbye to their Russian counterparts.
The Russian flotilla that arrived in Venezuela on Nov. 25, comprising the heavy nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, a tanker and a tugboat, took part in the exercises.
Official Venezuelan news agency ABN reported Tuesday that the exercises "served to test and strengthen the maritime communications systems used by the two countries."
"Five exercises were conducted in total: resupply of cargo and fuel, communications, aircraft exchange, anti-aircraft defense and anti-terrorist maneuvers," ABN said.
The exercises, which had been expected to last all week, were conducted between 20 and 50 nautical miles off the coast of Venezuela. These were the first naval exercises conducted by Russia in the Caribbean since the end of the Cold War, and they followed last week's visit to Caracas by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
"There will be no kind of artillery exercises, which would be a probable cause of concern for maritime traffic," Venezuelan Vice Adm. Luis Alberto Morales Marquez said on the eve of the Venrus 2008 maneuvers.
The Venezuelan government insisted the exercises were "no threat to anyone" and described as much more worrisome the presence off South American coasts of the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet, a World War II-era force reactivated this year after an absence of nearly 60 years. The Venrus 2008 maneuvers follow others carried out recently by the Venezuelan navy with naval units from Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Trinidad and Tobago.
Medvedev and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, signed seven cooperation agreements last week designed to bolster their countries' burgeoning alliance. The first Russian head of state to visit Venezuela called for "strengthening the dynamics that have been developing" between the nations, taking into account "the current global crisis." Between 2005 and 2007, Venezuela bought $4.4 billion worth of arms from Russia, including 24 Sukhoi-30 fighter-bombers, 50 helicopters and 100,000 AK-103 combat rifles.
Caracas, according to officials, turned to Russia for arms because of Washington's refusal to sell military hardware to Venezuela or provide promised maintenance and spare parts for the F-16 warplanes the United States sold the South American country in the 1980s. The ban on arms sales was imposed by the Bush administration, which calls Chavez "authoritarian" and accuses him of trying to destabilize the region, while the fiery leftist leader denounces U.S. "imperialism".
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