MOSCOW (Al Jazeera) – Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and to inspect a Russian airbase in the country, his ministry said.
The trip comes as the Russian military deployed long-range nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to its airbase in Syria for massive naval drills in the region.
During a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday, Shoigu “informed the Syrian president about the exercises of the Russian navy in the eastern Mediterranean”, Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The two discussed “military-technical cooperation as part of the joint fight” against international “terrorism” and Russian humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria “suffering from the prohibitive sanctions of the United States and Western countries”.
The statement said Shoigu also inspected Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in western Syria, which has served as Russia’s main outpost in the Middle Eastern country. Moscow has also expanded and modified a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such facility that Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.
It wasn’t clear from the statement precisely when the meeting took place.
The Defence Ministry said the exercise in the eastern Mediterranean that involves 15 warships and about 30 aircraft is part of a series of sweeping naval drills that started last month amid the standoff over Ukraine. It said the maneuvers were intended to train for action to “protect national interests” and “fend off military threats against the Russian Federation”.
Russian jets have been targeting positions held by terror outfits inside Syria at the Damascus government’s request since September 2015. The airstrikes have helped Syrian forces advance against the militants, who have been wreaking havoc in the Arab country.
Russia and the West are deeply divided over the Syrian crisis since its outbreak in March 2011. While Russia has been supporting Damascus in its fight against terrorists, the Western states want to see Assad removed from power.
The United States, along with its Western and regional allies, has been among the staunch supporters of the militant groups operating against the Syrian government.