The South African National Defence Force (SANDF), through the South African Air Force has welcomed the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation who arrived in Pretoria on their goodwill visit to South Africa.
The visit by the Russian Aerospace Forces began on Tuesday will be concluded on Friday.
The Russian military’s air arsenal landed at the at Air Force Base Waterkloof, in the City of Tshwane on a tour described as part of display of defence cooperation, strengthening of military-to-military relations, in particular with the South African Airforce (SAAF).
During the tour of the Russian military, a bilateral seminar of both technical staff will be held, where where officials deliberate on combat planning and the planning philosophy as well as search and rescue matters.
“This friendly visit aims to reaffirm the diplomatic ties held by both countries’ military organisations, and it comes at the back of strong historical links existing between both countries dating as far back as February 28, 1992, which after, the ministries of defence of both countries penned an agreement on June 14, 1995, that the joint unit of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation will from time-to-time visit the Republic of South Africa,” the SANDF said in a statement.
“The SANDF will emerge as big heirs of this visit which sets a platform for the SA Air Force to gain knowledge and exposure to the large military air assets including the IL-62, AN-124, and Tupolev Tu-160 ‘Blackjack’ bombers which are the first to ever land on the African continent.”
The SANDF added that the tour by the Russian military is part of the South African National Defence Force’s broader military-to-military partnership framework with several other defence forces across the globe.
Last year, reported that the SANDF took take part in naval exercise Mosi II with its Russian and Chinese counterparts along the KwaZulu-Natal coast in February.
This was the second time such an exercise took place involving the three naval forces.
At the time, then defence and military veterans minister Thandi Modise hit back at widespread critics of the military exercise featuring the SANDF, the People’s Liberation Army Navy of China, and the Russian Federal Navy, saying the exercise multilateral maritime exercise was highly beneficial for the three navies.
That exercise was preceded with different engagements with militaries including the United Kingdom, China, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
“There was no hype about any of these countries, especially with regard to the United States of America, wherein we held an even longer exercise, known as Exercise Shared ACCORD in KwaZulu-Natal last year regarding our military health capabilities,” said Modise at the time.
