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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

We are holding this year’s first meeting of the Commission for Military Technology Cooperation, and I would like to begin with a look back at the work done last year.

2014 has shown that Russia has confirmed its position as a global leader in the arms and military technology exports. Our business partners in military technology number over 80 states.

Last year Russian produce was in demand in over 60 countries. The total volume of sales exceeded $15 billion. We signed almost $14 billion worth of contracts, which only added to the already significant portfolio of Russian arms manufacturers.

Russian arms and military equipment remain among the most popular in the world. Our active promotion of Russian military produce on the global markets has also been effective.

Here I am referring not only to legal and regulatory improvements in this area. We are gradually developing new arms markets: primarily those in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

We are working more actively with both traditional and prospective partners. We have always paid great attention to new forms of relations with our customers, and will continue to do so. Here I am referring to the entire range of measures: from the use of up-to-date financial and marketing instruments to setting up joint production facilities (the way we are doing with India, for instance) and modernising the servicing of the equipment.

The import replacement programmes we launched in the defence industry should also play their part here.

I would like to remind you that global competition in military technology cooperation is very high. Both traditional and new market players are being very active.

With this in mind, we need to make maximum use of Russia’s competitive edge, which includes our reputation as a reliable and predictable partner that does not make its commitments dependent on market preferences or political trends. Russia is honestly competing with leading world manufacturers of defence products.

Today new challenges and threats force many countries to revise their military doctrines and modernise their Armed Forces. We have to consider these tendencies.

Russia will expand its presence on such promising markets as the Asia-Pacific Region, the African continent, Latin America and the Caribbean.

I would like to highlight the fact that exports of high technology military produce, especially given the complicated geopolitical situation, is of great significance to Russia. This is important for the renewal of defence industry production, for enhancing research, testing and design work and for the resolution of a number of social matters.

I would like to thank all those who worked in this sphere in 2014. I would like to repeat that you have done well, and we need to keep up the pace.

Let us proceed to the matters at hand.

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