As Russia wrote off 73% of Syria's $13.4 billion Soviet-era debt in 2005[20] and became Syria's main arms supplier, Russia and Syria held talks about allowing Russia to develop and enlarge its naval facility, so that Russia could strengthen its naval presence in the Mediterranean.[21] Amid Russia's deteriorating relations with the West, because of the 2008 South Ossetia War and of plans to deploy a US missile defense shield in Poland, an unsourced article said that President Assad reportedly agreed to the port's conversion into a permanent Middle East base for Russia's nuclear-armed warships.[22]