Cyprian Defence Minister To Hold Talks With Russia's Rosoboronexport

Cyprian Defence Minister Socrates Hasikos, currently on a four-day routine visit to Moscow, will negotiate military-and-technological cooperation with the executives of Rosoboronexport, Russia's major state-run arms dealer, on Wednesday, according to a source in the Cyprian minister's delegation. The Cyprian side hopes to sign a number of documents to follow up on agreements reached during Hasikos' previous visit to Moscow in December of 1997, and to expand bilateral military-technological cooperation in general. It will be recalled that, over the past few years, Cyprus equipped its 8,000-strong national guard with Russian-made armoured personnel carriers, tanks, small arms and even a surface-to-air missile system S-300, which was deployed in Crete, Greece on agreement with the Greek side.