Russia has approved the deployment of helicopters to bolster an EU peacekeeping force along Chad's border with the Darfur region of Sudan, the Russian defense minister said Tuesday.
The deployment would be the first direct Russian contribution to an EU military mission, an EU official said, though technical and legal details of the plan were still being discussed, and no timeline was announced.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has already approved the mission and government funds have been allocated, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said during a visit to Paris.
The EU force's mission to Chad and neighboring Central African Republic is to help limit possible spillover from the fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region. It is expected to be fully deployed by June with 3,800 troops from at least 14 countries.
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Russia has made its first large contribution to an EU military mission by allocating funds and helicopters for a mission in Chad. The Darfur region is in much turmoil right now, and it says something about Russia's foreign relations to allocate a resource such as that and help in the EU.
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