Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:48:44 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: Russia wants to stay at Cam Ranh bay
X-To:         FISHLM%SNYBUFVA@pucc.princeton.edu, scv@media.mit.edu,
              seasia-l@msu.BITNET, vietnam@cco.caltech.edu, vn-news@saigon.com

08/27

RUSSIA WANTS TO STAY AT VIETNAM'S CAM RANH BAY

    HANOI, Aug 27, Reuter - Russia hopes to hold talks with Hanoi this year on
continued use of Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay naval base, but expects new and
different terms to apply, the Russian ambassador to Hanoi said on Thursday.
    Rashid Khamidouline also told a news conference that Russia was ready to
help Vietnam develop the base on its southeastern coast into a combined
military-civilian facility.
    "We want to continue (there), but differently from the past. it depends on
the Vietnamese attitude...the two sides need to agree on the new different way,"
he said, in answer to reporters' questions.
    He gave no details, but Russian diplomats said recently that Moscow might
have to pay Hanoi for continued use of Cam Ranh. In the past Vietnam provided
free access to the Soviet Union as Hanoi's main supplier of aid and preferential
trade.
    Russia, which inherited use of Cam Ranh naval base from the former Soviet
Union, has been scaling down its presence there.
    Cam Ranh served as a main supply and repair facility for the Soviet Pacific
fleet and at its peak in the 1980s housed 4,000 to 7,000 servicemen, according
to past foreign news reports.
    But Moscow began pulling out planes, ships and servicemen a few years ago,
saying it no longer had the resources or the political or military justification
to maintain such a big presence at Cam Ranh.
    Khamidouline told reporters after the news conference that there might be
around 1,000 former Soviet servicemen still at Cam Ranh, but he was unsure of
the number and it changed often.
    A Vietnamese military officer near Cam Ranh said recently he thought there
were now only about 400 servicemen, plus family members.
    Khamidouline said he thought many of the present military port facilities at
Cam Ranh could be put to civilian use.
    When asked, the Russian ambassador said Russia agreed with Vietnam's
position on the need to resolve peacefully a dispute over the Spratly islands in
the South China Sea.
    Southeast Asian countries have been alarmed by a recent Chinese push in and
around the Spratlys, which are claimed wholly or in part by Vietnam, China,
Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
    China passed a law in February claiming the Spratlys and other islands and
waters in the area. In May it signed an agreement with a U.S. firm to drill for
oil between the Spratlys and Vietnam's coast. Hanoi protested and urged Beijing
to cancel the agreement.
    China, which occupies six islands in the scattered Spratly archipelago, sent
troops on July 4 to erect a supposed sovereignty marker on a seventh small
Spratly island.
    The Spratlys straddle an important sea route linking the Indian and Pacific
oceans, and might lie on oil reserves.
    Khamidouline said the Spratly dispute should be settled through negotiations
and that countries concerned should jointly exploit any reserves there.
    "We have to ensure that this question doesn't turn into a conflict...of
course, Russia won't interfere in this question, but it's important that it not
become an explosive issue," he said.
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