Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
By Ilya Khrennikov and Lyubov Pronina
May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss military supplies and natural gas projects on his first visit to Syria, days after the U.S. decided to renew sanctions against the country for support of terrorist groups.
Arms supplies may be discussed during Medvedev’s visit which begins today, a senior Kremlin official told reporters May 7 in Moscow. No weapons deals will be signed during the visit, he said.
Russia’s relations with Syria, formerly one of the major Soviet allies in the Middle East, have strengthened and trade between the two countries quadrupled from 2005 to 2008 to almost $2 billion, or 20 percent of Russia’s total volume with Arab countries. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has visited Russia three times, most recently in August 2008 when he said he supported Russia’s position in its war with Georgia.
Russia wants to boost trade and investment as well as energy cooperation, Medvedev said in an article in Syrian newspaper Al Watan.
“For this we have a few possibilities,” Medvedev told the newspaper. “In recent years we have managed to advance significantly interaction in oil, gas and electricity” as well as irrigation.
Facilities constructed with Soviet or Russian assistance account for up to 20 percent of Syria’s power generation and a quarter of the country’s oil sector, according to the Kremlin.
OAO Stroytransgaz, a Russian pipeline builder, and oil producer OAO Tatneft are working on projects in Syria.
Pipeline, Refinery
Stroytransgaz last November completed the first part of the Syrian section in a gas pipeline from Egypt that crosses Jordan with a further extension to Turkey, Medvedev said in the article. Russia also completed a gas refinery with capacity to process 7.5 million cubic meters of natural gas a day. Tatneft last month started commercial production at the South Kishma oil field in Syria.
Russian companies are also seeking to participate in the construction of an oil refinery in the city of Deir Ez-Zor, as well as reconstructing an oil pipeline from the Kirkuk oil field in Iraq to the Syrian port of Banias, Medvedev said.
Medvedev’s visit to Damascus comes after U.S. President Barack Obama May 3 renewed U.S. sanctions on Syria, citing its support for terrorist groups and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
Syria’s actions and policies “pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Obama said in a notice sent to Congress and released by the White House.
U.S. Sanctions
The sanctions were originally imposed in 2004 by then- president George W. Bush.
Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the Obama administration’s policy of engaging with Syria against criticism from Congress after allegations that Syria transferred missiles to Hezbollah terrorists. Obama plans to send an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since 2005.
Russia’s arms trade with Syria may upset the U.S., which is working to re-set its relations with Moscow, especially after the two presidents signed an agreement to cut their two countries’ nuclear weapons arsenals.
Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas exporter, is looking to supply gas from Syria to Lebanon via Pan Arabian gas pipeline, part of which is constructed by Stroytransgaz, according to Kremlin data.
--Editor: Dick Schumacher.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@bloomberg.net Lyubov Pronina in Moscow at lpronina@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Kirkham at ckirkham@bloomberg.net
