Link to Article: https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/2\/15\/russias-defence-minister-meets-syrias-assad-for-talks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this article, Russian defense minister met with President Assad in Syria as tensions between Russia and Western powers increase amid the Ukraine crisis. The reason for Russia’s visit mainly being centered around inspecting a Russian air-base within Syria as the Russian military deployed long-range nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets to its airbase in Syria for credible naval drills in the region. The two powers discussed a cooperation plan which is basically a move against “United States and Western Powers blocks and restrictions.” Amongst the talks it is reported Russia has expanded its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union which is located in the Syrian port of Tartus. Russia states these talks and maneuvers are mainly aimed at “preserving national interests and its security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s important about this article is the history of relations between Syria and Russia which helps explain their random deals and relationships amid the current Ukraine crisis. Both of the two countries each have embassies in the others country (Russia has an embassy in Damascus and Syria has one in Moscow), the two countries (Russia then being the Soviet Union) signed a treaty of friendship circa 1980. Throughout history, the stable and secure relationship between the two powers is clear with more recent support being seen through Russia’s support in 2015 regarding the war which aided Syria in turning the tide of the war in Assad\u2019s favour. Looking at the history between Syria and Moscow it is clear that today’s close relations are not accidental. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The topics in this article related to the fluidity of alliances which we have discussed in class multiple times in various scenarios. Since Syria is not generally seen as a powerful country but if anything war torn, from the outside it can seem confusing to people as to why Moscow would be interested in aligning itself with the power as the benefit is not huge. However with countries surrounding Syria (like Saudi Arabia) are western aligned and backed so its easy to see why Moscow feels the need to have presence in such an energy rich region as Western powers do. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Link to Article: https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/2\/15\/russias-defence-minister-meets-syrias-assad-for-talks In this article, Russian defense minister met with President Assad in Syria as tensions between Russia and Western powers increase amid the Ukraine crisis. The reason for Russia’s visit mainly being centered around inspecting a Russian air-base within Syria as the Russian military deployed long-range nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets to its airbase in Syria for… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5009,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions\/5009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}