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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today we will continue considering matters pertaining to the operation of industrial facilities and corresponding departments of the Defence Ministry regarding weapons systems that are to determine the overall image of our army in the coming decade.

The development and production of such systems is our response to the challenges we are facing and they guarantee the defence of this country’s security and national interests. As we all know, the United States and their allies are continuously building up their global missile defence system. Unfortunately, neither our concern nor cooperation proposals are taken into consideration.

We indicated on numerous occasions that we see such actions as an attempt to undermine the existing parity in nuclear missile armaments, and actually to destabilise the entire system of regional and global stability.

They assured us that the anti-missile defence system and its European segment were designed to defend from Iranian ballistic missiles. However, we know that the Iranian nuclear issue has been resolved, with appropriate agreements signed. Moreover, corresponding parliaments have already approved them, but work on the anti-missile defence system continues.

Therefore, references to the Iranian and North Korean nuclear missile threats are a cover-up for the true intentions, which are actually directed at neutralising the strategic nuclear potential of other nuclear states, apart from the United States and their allies, primarily that of Russia, of course, and at obtaining a decisive military supremacy with all the ensuing consequences.

We have said repeatedly that Russia would take the necessary reciprocal measures to strengthen its nuclear potential. We will also work on anti-missile defence systems as well, but on the first stage, as we have repeatedly said, we will focus also on offensive systems capable of overcoming any anti-missile defence systems.

In the past three years, facilities of the defence industry have created and successfully tested a number of promising armament systems capable of performing combat missions in conditions of an anti-missile defence system in depth. Troops have begun receiving such systems this year.

Today we will discuss the assimilation of new types of armaments and then we will talk to representatives of the military-industrial complex and ask them to speak of the possibility to further improve the combat characteristics of these systems. Now let us begin.

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