S. Africa, Cuba Formalize Defense Cooperation

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa and Cuba signed a memorandum Jan. 10 to put a stamp on the cooperation between the two country's armies, a spokesman said.

Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu signed the memorandum of understanding with Ulises Rosales del Toro, the vice-president of Cuba's council of ministers, according to defense ministry spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini.

"We're cementing that South Africa-Cuban defense cooperation," Dlamini told AFP.

The two countries have already worked together in the past, but the agreement formalizes exchanges in the air force, veterans, military health and education, training and development.

"They're bringing their instructors. The main target is military health," said Dlamini. "The memorandum gives a framework on operations, but the details are left to the officials."

"We are looking to introduce Cuba to our defense industry," he said, adding that South Africa could also share its experiences in peace-keeping with Cuba.

The island state supported South Africa's ruling African National Congress during its struggle against apartheid. It opposed the apartheid regime and sent some 50,000 troops to Angola who fought South African apartheid forces until their withdrawal in the late 1980s.

The two countries established diplomatic relations at the fall of white-minority rule in 1994. They set up a joint bilateral commission in February 2001 and have since cooperated in a number of projects including sending South African medical students to study in Cuba. Cuban doctors and teachers have also come to work in South Africa.

A 2004-agreement between South Africa and Cuba resulted in the deployment of 101 Cuban doctors to Mali, with financial backing from South Africa. In 2008 South Africa forgave Cuba's debt of 926.8-million-rand ($117million, 73 million euro).

Switzerland Taps Saab's Gripen as F-5 Replacement

STOCKHOLM - Swedish defense group Saab AB said Nov. 30 it was "proud and delighted" over Switzerland's decision to purchase 22 of its Gripen fighter jets to replace its aging F-5 fleet.

"Given that Switzerland is known globally for applying (the) highest procurement standards and requesting state-of-the art technologies, Saab is both proud and delighted that Gripen has been chosen as the Swiss Air Force's future multirole fighter aircraft," Saab said in a statement.

The Swiss selection "confirms that Saab is a market-leader in the defense and security industry and that Gripen is a world-class fighter system that provides the best value for money", Saab CEO and president Haakan Buskhe said in the statement.

Gripen is already in service with the Swedish, Czech, Hungarian, South African and Thai air forces.

Saab saw its share price take off on the Stockholm stock exchange after the announcement. Saab closed up 11 percent at 120 kronor ($17.75) in an overall market that closed up 5.14 percent.

Iran Spurns 'Useless' UN Mideast Atomic Forum

VIENNA, Nov 21 - Iran angrily stayed away Monday from a UN atomic agency forum on creating a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, amid growing tensions over Tehran's suspected efforts to develop the bomb.
Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran's decision was its "first reaction" to the body's "inappropriate" recent report on its nuclear program.

That assessment saw the IAEA come the closest yet to accusing Iran outright of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, hit by four rounds of UN sanctions, says its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes.
On Friday, the IAEA's board of governors passed a resolution of "deep and increasing concern" submitted by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and 12 others in light of the report.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak meanwhile provided an ominous response Sunday when asked about growing speculation of a military strike.
The IAEA report "has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come," he told CNN.
"Our greatest wish is that they commit such a mistake," Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on Monday.
Soltanieh said another reason for not attending the two-day IAEA forum, aimed at learning from the experiences of other so-called nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ), was Israel's unofficial atomic arsenal.
"As long as the Zionist regime does not belong to the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) ... this kind of conference is useless and cannot succeed," Soltanieh told Iranian television channel Al-Alam.
Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it. Unlike Iran, it is not a signatory to the NPT and therefore not subject to IAEA inspections.
Syria, reported by the IAEA to the Security Council over a suspected covert reactor allegedly bombed by Israel in 2007, was, however, present at the forum, along with Israel, 17 other Middle East states and Palestinian representatives.
Some of the roughly 275 participants from 97 countries in the closed-door discussion said representatives of several Arab states, particularly Syria and Lebanon, had used their speeches to attack Israel.
"Israeli nuclear capabilities pose a grave and continuous threat to others in the region. Israel must join the NPT," Syria ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said, according to a participant.
Israel's ambassador was yet to speak. Participants said the atmosphere was, however, less "confrontational" than previous IAEA events that have degenerated into Arab-Israeli slanging matches.
NWFZ treaties prohibit the production, acquisition and stationing of nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear testing.
Zones of this kind already exist in Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia, encompassing 113 countries.
IAEA member states requested in 2000 that such a Mideast forum take place, but agreement on holding such a meeting remained elusive until now.
The forum comes ahead of a conference in 2012 to be hosted by Finland on ridding the powder keg region, rocked this year by Arab Spring uprisings in several countries, of nuclear weapons.
IAEA head Yukiya Amano, opening the forum, conceded there were "longstanding differences of view" on creating such a zone.
"It has taken 11 years to get to this point," Amano said. "I hope it will nurture fresh thinking - creative thinking."
"It's up to Iran to consider if it can make a contribution. Clearly, they felt not," South Africa's IAEA ambassador Abdul Samad Minty told reporters. "But [the forum] is a first step. It's not the end of the process."

S. Africa Reopens Probe Into Gripen Bribes: Report

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - South African police have reopened their investigation into a controversial arms deal after Swedish defense group Saab admitted bribes were paid to clinch a contract, according to a July 31 report.

A South African Air Force Gripen fighter jet is on display at a 2006 airshow in Cape Town, South Africa. A July 31 report says an investigation into claims of bribes paid by Saab and BAE to South African officials has been reopened. (File photo / Agence France-Presse)

Officials will approach authorities in Sweden and Britain to find out what their investigations have uncovered about allegations of corruption in the 1999 deal for 26 JAS Gripen fighter jets, South Africa's Sunday Times reported.

Saab last month admitted that 24 million rand ($3.6 million, 2.5 million euros) in bribes had been paid to secure the deal, but blamed its former British partner BAE Systems for making the payoffs.
The Sunday Times said the head of South Africa's elite investigative squad, the Hawks, had sent a letter to parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts indicating the investigation would be reopened, 10 months after the Hawks were sharply criticized for dropping the politically sensitive probe.
"I have already instructed two officials... to approach the relevant authorities in both Sweden [National Anti-Corruption Unit] and the UK [Serious Fraud Office]," Hawks chief Anwar Dramat wrote.
"Subject to approval by these authorities, [we] will assess the available information with a view to determine whether there is information which points to crime[s] in South Africa."
The chair of the parliamentary committee, Themba Godi, said reopening the investigation was "a brave and correct decision."
"Unless justice is being done and is seen as being done on this matter, it's going to continue to cast a cold shadow over the political landscape of the country," Godi told the Sunday Times.
Saab's admission came after Sweden's TV4 television channel said it had evidence the defense group had promised to pay Fana Hlongwane, then advisor to the South African defense minister, millions of euros in bonuses if Pretoria did not back out of the Gripen deal.
Saab said bribes had been paid in the form of bonuses and salaries between 2003 and 2005 by its South African subsidiary Sanip, which was then controlled by BAE Systems.
The deal provided for the sale of 28 Gripen fighters for 1.6 billion euros, later trimmed to 26 planes. The last is due to be delivered next year.
Claims of corruption in the multi-billion-dollar program to modernize South Africa's military after apartheid have threatened to damage the careers of some of the country's top politicians.
In 2005, President Jacob Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for charges that included soliciting bribes to Zuma from French arms company Thomson-CSF. He has since been released on medical parole.
Efforts to put Zuma on trial for corruption have collapsed, but questions over the arms deal continue to hang over his presidency.
After Zuma won control of the African National Congress in 2007, the ruling party made a successful push to disband the predecessor to the Hawks, the Scorpions, an investigative unit that led the probe against Shaik and also implicated Zuma in questionable deals.

Russia, NATO Remain At Odds Over Libya Campaign

SOCHI, Russia - Russia and NATO on July 4 said they were still at odds over the air campaign in Libya after talks between Russian leaders and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, third from left, speaks with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, fifth from left, during the Russia-NATO Council meeting July 4 in Sochi, Russia. (Mikhail Mordasov / Agence France-Presse)

"So far, there is no common understanding over how the resolution is being implemented," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, referring to the U.N. Security Council resolution that paved the way for the air campaign.

Lavrov and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier held talks with Rasmussen in this Black Sea city in a bid to overcome their differences and find a peaceful solution to the Libya crisis.
Lavrov said they were also joined by South African President Jacob Zuma, who earlier had a bilateral meeting with Medvedev and like Russia wants a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Russia abstained in the resolution vote at the Security Council but has since expressed growing anger over the duration and intensity of the NATO-led air strikes against targets of Moammar Gadhafi's Libyan regime.
Last week Russia was particularly angered by a direct French arms drop to rebels fighting Gadhafi's forces and the two sides made no attempt to hide their differences after the Sochi talks.
"We consider the arms embargo [under the U.N. Security Council resolution] to be unambiguous," Lavrov said. "Any weapons deliveries are a violation of the resolution," he added.
"They [NATO] have a different opinion - that the resolution can let anyone do anything."
Rasmussen vehemently defended the arms drop and said it was in line with the resolution.
"The delivery of weapons has taken place as part of protection of civilians and the ability to protect themselves against attacks," he said.
"So far we have successfully implemented the resolution."

SIPRI: New START Unlikely to Have Short-Term Effect

HELSINKI, Finland - The recent New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is unlikely to much alter the nuclear landscape in the short term, said SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research institute), the Stockholm-based think tank.
New START calls for slowly paring the U.S. and Russian arsenals to 1,500 warheads from the nearly 5,000 currently deployed, which includes some 2,000 on high alert, SIPRI notes in its 2011 Yearbook, released on June 7.

"It's a stretch to say that the New START cuts agreed by the U.S. and Russia are a genuine step toward nuclear disarmament when their planning for nuclear forces is done on a time scale that encompasses decades, and when nuclear modernization is a major priority in their defense policies," Shannon Kile, a senior research analyst with SIPRI, said in a statement.
The think tank remains skeptical about the desire for meaningful short-term disarmament by the eight nuclear powers.
"The five legally recognized nuclear weapons states, as defined by the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, are either deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so," says SIPRI, referring to the Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.
India and Pakistan are expanding their ability to make weapons-grade nuclear material, said SIPRI director Daniel Nord.
"South Asia is the only place in the world where you have a nuclear weapons arms race," Nord said.
SIPRI estimates that more than 20,500 warheads are in the arsenals of the world's eight nuclear powers: Britain, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States. Russia has 11,000, including 2,427 deployed, while the United States has 8,500, including 2,150 deployed, according to SIPRI estimates.

Global Spending 2010

The SIPRI report also included estimates of countries' defense spending.
It said Brazil, China, India, Russia, South Africa and Turkey are re-emerging as regional powers, with all but Turkey boosting their defense spending.
SIPRI estimates global military expenditure in 2010 rose 1.3 percent in real terms to $1.630 trillion. That's slower than recent years, which the think tank blames on the global economic crisis.
Military spending rose 5.8 percent in South America, 5.2 in Africa, and 4.1 in Oceania, a region dominated by Australia and New Zealand.
The biggest spender, the United States, spent almost six times more than China, its nearest rival, up to $698 billion in 2010.
Rounding out the top 10 were Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India and Italy.

South Africa Exporting Arms to Repressive Regimes: Report

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has exported millions of dollars' worth of arms to some of the world's most repressive regimes, a weekly newspaper said Sunday, citing a classified government weapons report.
Africa's largest arms exporter has sold weapons to five of the 10 least democratic states on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index and 10 of the 25 worst performers on the Global Peace Index, which ranks nations by their peacefulness, according to The Sunday Independent.

The paper cites Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen as countries with questionable democracy and human rights records that have received South African weapons.
The government last year approved the sale of 35 billion rand ($5.3 billion, 3.6 billion euros) in arms to 78 countries, the Independent said, citing the annual report of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, which officials have kept under wraps.
Of that total, the paper identified more than one billion rand in sales to repressive regimes.
South Africa's arms sales have been under the spotlight since opposition politicians accused the government of selling weapons to Libya, which they said leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces may now be using against civilians in the country's deepening conflict.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, who chairs the arms control committee, told parliament South Africa had exported 81 million rand ($12 million, eight million euros) in weapons to Libya from 2003 to 2009, but said at the time there was no indication the arms would be used on civilians.
South Africa's arms control act requires the committee to vet exports by the country's $2.6-billion defense industry to ensure they will not be used for anything but "legitimate defense and security needs".
South Africa developed a home-grown defense industry during the apartheid era, when the white-minority regime was under a U.N. arms embargo.
The industry lost much of its government funding after the first democratic elections in 1994, turning to overseas sales to fill the gap.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, South Africa was the world's 15th largest arms exporter from 2006 to 2010.

South Africa Launches Combat Helicopter Program

JOHANNESBURG - South African defense firm Denel handed its new Rooivalk armed helicopter over to the military April 1, a project 27 years in the making touted as a boost to national pride.
The Rooivalk program, which cost an estimated 613 billion rand ($91 billion, 64 billion euros) from its launch in 1984 under the apartheid regime, had often been derided as a waste of money in a country whose military mission had changed radically during that time.

But air force leaders and defense contractors said April 1 the handover of five combat-ready helicopters was a proud day for South Africa and a sign of the country's robust industry.
"It proves that South Africa has the capacity for design, engineering and manufacturing to compete effectively in the global environment," said Antonie Visser, chief of defense materiel for the South African defense department.
"It is giving a certain image to South Africa, that we are capable of producing such equipment. That's exactly the reason why there are many aviation companies that make use of South Africa to help them manufacture certain components," he told AFP.
The Rooivalk, which can be armed with anti-tank missiles and is equipped for night combat, was conceived during the apartheid era when South Africa was under a United Nations arms embargo and needed air support for troops fighting a war against the post-independence government in Angola.
But the country's history and military mission changed dramatically with the fall of white-minority rule, throwing the helicopter into an uncertain future.
Plans to export the helicopter foundered as the project dragged on. To date the only customer is the South African government, which plans to buy a modest total of 11 Rooivalks - the remaining six to be delivered by year's end.