By Abdul Hakim Hilal
FOR THE YEMEN POST

President Saleh’s recent visit to Russia raised a great deal of media fuss and this fuss was associated with the nature of the visit. The official media mentioned that Saleh’s visit was meant for canceling Yemen’s debts as well as the economic cooperation, while the international media revealed that Yemen signed weapons deals at billions of US Dollars. This was later affirmed by the official media as they revealed that the country signed a four-billion dollar weapons deal, the biggest deal ever.

Russian base in exchange for weapons
The visit was important because it was made after news that spoke of Russian intentions to set up military bases in three Arab countries including Libya, Syria and Yemen, according to Russia’s official news agency Itar Tass. Though denied by Yemeni officials, the Russian Chief of General Staff noted that negotiations for having military bases in return for weapons were conducted with some foreign governments.
Moreover, Russian warships have been combing Aden’s Gulf since 2008 to hunt Somali pirates; however, media reports mentioned that President Saleh welcomed more Russian presence in the Gulf of Aden. According to Reuters, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics used to provide weapons to the then South Yemen during the 1970-80s in return for using its territorial waters and coasts.
According to official media, the most important success for Saleh’s visit was signing the weapons deal and modernizing the military hardware at $4 billion.
International reports revealed that Russia has become the biggest winner for Yemen’s weapons deals since 2001 the imports reached 58 percent over the years 2001-2004. Over the years 1993-96, Yemen’s major imports of weapons came from Europe at 75 percent, followed by China. Between 1997-2000, the country’s imports of weapons were varied, mostly from Europe.
America’s exports of weapons to Yemen started in 2005 after it had been imposing a ban on the exports of weapons to several countries including Yemen; however, America, within its strategy for war on terror launched following September 11 attacks, viewed it necessary to support 25 developing countries.

Doubling armament/weapons budget
A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued in 2006 noted that Yemen doubled its spending on armament by 96 percent over the years 2001-2005. The spending on armament was $482 million in 2001 and it doubled in 2003 to reach $809 and further increased to $869 million and 942 million in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
The report further mentioned that Yemen’s spending on armament was much higher than the spending of 1990s, about $539 million, hinting this increase would heavily burden the national economy. The country’s spending on weapons during the 1990s was just $400 million while the figure multiplied during the first four years of the second millennium to $700 million.
Yemen has relied on Europe, China and recently Russia for its imports of weapons, as the country bought weapons from China at $100 million during the years 1993-1996 and the same applies to the period ranging between 2001 and 2004, while the country’s imports from Russia during the same period rose to $400 million.
Over the period 2001-2004, Yemen signed different deals for buying weapons totaling $900 million, of which Russian exports formed $600 million and $100 million from China, while another $200 million was paid for arms from other sources.

Margin of error
Once these figures are quoted from international sources concerned with monitoring weapons deals and distribution, they are reliable sources. There are also other sources that leak information about such deals including intelligence departments as was the case with Korean vessel, carrying Scud Missiles for Yemen, seized by the Spanish naval forces on December 9, 2002. The vessel was released later when Yemen gave assurances that these missiles will not go to a third party. There are also other illegal sources for the military hardware – e.g. the black market and others are granted as material aids and these cannot be calculated.
In this regard, the report stressed that Yemen – which has a small budget – is not forced to buy weapons because it does not face outside military threats, especially after its relations with the neighboring Saudi Arabia and Oman have improved.
Again, the study implied that Yemen has a limited arsenal of chemical weapons and it can, through its existing conventional weapons, crush any national armed rebellion, but the study never mentioned the war in Sa’ada.

Spending Year
$482 million 2001
$809 million 2003
$869 million 2004
$942 million 2005
Table no (1): Military Spending over the years 2001 -2004
Source: Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Spending Year
$437 million 1997
$421 million 1998
$456 million 1999
$529 million 2000
$570 million 2001

Table no (2): Military Spending over the years 1997 -2001
Source: Centre for Strategic and International Studies