Following a meeting last week between leading Lebanese legislator Sa’ad Hariri and Russian leaders, Hariri was quoted by Russian media this weekend as saying Russia will sell heavy weaponry to Lebanon. Previously, Hariri said that he hoped Russia would help Lebanon claim Mt. Dov from Israel. Russia is expecting Lebanon to recognize the independence of [...]

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Sudan Tribune reports the Sudanese government received a party of Russian MIG-29 combat fighters in violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1591. A source close to the Sudanese army told the combat fighters were shipped discreetly from Belarus.
UNSC resolution 1591 prohibits selling arms to Sudan government or Darfur rebels.
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Taiwan had the opportunity to buy arms for several years, but chose not to do so because of internal conflict. A little more than half the island preferred to spend money on social programs instead of expensive military equipment.
From the article:
US says there is no pressing and compelling need at this moment for arms sales [...]

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A group of German security and peace researchers warns that current armament tendencies may pose greater threats to the world than the Cold war did, a development for which the United States is mainly to blame.
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A fire at an air base arms depot in north-western Russia has reportedly set off several missiles, but caused no deaths or injuries.
Amateur video shows what appear to be at least two rockets zigzagging through a clear afternoon sky around the Lodeynoe Pole base near St Petersburg.
Unofficial sources say that at least 400 air-to-air rockets [...]

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According to the reports, the talks will focus on arms sales - including submarines, anti-aircraft missiles, the latest model MiG fighter jets and advanced surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.
Israel is particularly concerned with a Syrian request for long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could threaten IAF jets flying on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.
The S-300 is [...]

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A Chinese ship loaded with armaments for Zimbabwe steamed into the port of Durban this week and set off a political firefight, putting newfound pressure on South Africa — and now China — to reduce support for Zimbabwe’s government as it cracks down on its rivals after a disputed election.
Dock workers at the port, backed [...]

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South America has a right to beef up its armed forces but is not in an arms race, Brazil’s defense minister said on Monday, as the region raises military spending on the back of high oil, food and metals prices.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who is in Venezuela to discuss a planned South American security [...]

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Israel is concerned that Iran might start moving weapons to Hezbollah by means of ships that anchor in the Beirut port, government sources in Jerusalem said.
The sources said oversight of marine vessels by UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) was not efficient enough to enforce an embargo on weapons shipments into Lebanon [...]

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The Libyan officer tried to cloak the purpose of his call to the Italian arms dealer. “A friend,” he said, wanted to buy 1 million “pieces” and 50 million items of “food.”
But when that phone call was placed in 2006, Italian police were listening. They knew the meaning. Libya was shopping for guns — lots [...]

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Venezuela’s Minister of Defense General-in-Chief Gustavo Rangel was even blunter about the deleterious effects of Washington’s policies. Speaking at a press conference on April 8 in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, Rangel said that the U.S. embargo introduced in May 2006 on deliveries to Venezuela of armaments, military equipment and spare parts had had a [...]

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At present Bout is accused of supplying portable ground-to-air missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — FARC — the left-wing militia waging a war against the Colombian government. Tensions have been mounting in South America since Colombian forces destroyed a FARC camp in Ecuador earlier this month.
Venezuela has also joined the confrontation, threatening [...]

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Chinese sales of assault rifles and other small arms to its ally Sudan have grown rapidly during the Darfur conflict despite a U.N. arms embargo, a human rights group said on Thursday.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, said a detailed study of Sudanese and U.N. trade data showed that China was virtually the [...]

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After orders peaked at more than $2 billion a year early in this decade, Chinese arms deals with Russia shrank to almost nothing in 2006, and no major new contracts are in the pipeline, according to Russian, Chinese and U.S. defense experts.
“We are in a strategic pause,” said Ruslan Pukhov, an expert on the Russian [...]

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India’s successful test-firing of a nuclear-capable, submarine-launched missile will trigger a new arms race in the region, Pakistan’s navy chief said on Wednesday.
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China is using billions of American trade dollars to modernize its military force — from purchasing foreign weapons systems and technologies to building its own ships, planes and missiles — a top lawmaker and his colleagues say.
As top U.S. military officials questioned China’s intentions in expanding its military last week, ranking House Armed Services Committee [...]

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The continuing weakness of China’s armaments industry has profound implications for China’s diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come.
First, this weakness puts Russia in the driver’s seat of the Russian-Chinese alliance. Although never formalized as such, this alliance has been a reality ever since [...]

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Russia proposed a treaty on Tuesday to ban the deployment of weapons in outer space, warning their development could lead to a new arms race and a repeat of the Cold War.
The draft treaty, presented by Russia and China to a U.N.-sponsored forum, would prohibit the deployment of weapons in space and the use or [...]

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The weapons that China wants from Russia — and that Moscow won’t sell Beijing — provide a remarkable insight into the current transitional state of the Chinese arms industry.
For although China now has arguably the broadest low-tech industrial base on Earth and a space development program that has more promise and vastly more resources devoted [...]

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Vladimir Putin accused the West of triggering a fresh arms race today and gave warning that Russia was now rich enough to respond with a new generation of high-tech weaponry.
President Putin attacked the United States and Europe for expanding Nato close to Russia’s border at a time when Moscow had closed military bases abroad. He [...]

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In some areas, that has already translated into formidable military-industrial and potential strategic clout. China already makes its own intercontinental ballistic missiles and increasingly sophisticated space satellites. On Jan. 11, 2007, it startled the world by successful carrying out an anti-satellite test by exploding one of its own satellites to destroy another one. A significant [...]

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