Bolivia defends Chinese aircraft purchases

LA PAZA, Bolivia, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Bolivia is defending its light attack aircraft purchases from China and an open line of credit for military hardware imports from Russia, arguing that its weapons acquisitions are less significant than those by other South American countries.

Defense Minister Walker San Miguel said in a statement Bolivia spends less than its neighbors on military hardware and is committed to the principles of peace and dissuasion.

"But we can't have armed forces that do not have access to the minimum equipment for their professional training and action if needed," San Miguel said, MercoPress reported.

His comments followed other South American leaders' recent pronouncements criticizing arms purchases by their neighbors and calls for restraint in military expenditure.

The Obama administration has said it is worried about huge arms purchases by nations that should be directing their cash resources to poverty reduction.

The minister's comment came after government confirmation that Bolivia would buy six K-8 aircraft from China to bolster its anti-narcotics operations and border controls.

The government of President Evo Morales has come under strong criticism for having approved the purchase worth $57.8 million -- funds that critics said should have been directed toward development in Bolivia.

A similar model of the K-8 was bought earlier by Venezuela.

Further criticism followed the open line of credit for arms purchases from Russia, though details of the arms purchases have not been revealed.

The financing arrangement for the aircraft is not clear, but China is pursuing a combined diplomatic and economic campaign in South America to increase its footprint in the region, secure energy and raw materials for its burgeoning industrial growth and win friends where it had few in the past. China has also promised to put a Bolivian satellite into space.

The aircraft was developed jointly by China and Pakistan as a two-seat trainer but later was fitted with advanced avionics and gun emplacements to function as a combat aircraft.

China has successfully sold the aircraft to Egypt, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, Southeast Asian countries and the Philippines, where it is likely to replace the British Aerospace BAE Hawk Mk.53 jet trainer.

San Miguel indicated Bolivia chose the Chinese option because it failed to receive positive response from European suppliers and the United States. "The U.S. is not helping and Europe has its own regulations, so we went to China," he said.

A matching purchase from the Czech Republic did not go through because of U.S. objections.

Last week Morales said Bolivia also could not receive five helicopters as a "donation" from Brazil because those aircraft, too, had U.S. components and could not be transferred to Bolivia before approval from Washington.

Morales has been at loggerheads with U.S. government agencies and suspended cooperation with Washington, accusing Drug Enforcement Administration agents of spying.