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Commissions and Councils /
Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Commission for Military Technical Cooperation with Foreign States held to discuss its performance in the outgoing year and plans for military technical cooperation with the key partners.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
We have gathered today for a regular meeting of the Commission for Military Technical Cooperation with Foreign States. Today we will be discussing relations with our key partners in this sphere, as well as measures for the further development of military technical cooperation.
It should be said that our exports of weapons and military equipment have grown to a total of $13 billion this year. This is more than $2 billion more than in the same period last year. Russia’s position on the global arms market is strengthening despite the increased sanctions pressure and unfair competition.
International trade fairs contribute to promoting our exports. During this year, Russia was the venue of seven such events, including the Army-2019 International Military-Technical Forum, the International Maritime Defence Show in St Petersburg and the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2019 held at Zhukovsky.
Our foreign partners could go and look at the latest achievements of our defence industry, including the latest fifth-generation Su-57 fighter plane, the Mi-38T helicopter with enhanced lifting power, the fourth-generation Viking medium range missile system, and the Tigr armoured vehicle, among others. The contracts signed following these trade fairs are estimated at around 35 billion rubles.
The overall portfolio of contracts has been stable at more than $50 billion. A high demand for Russian defence products is a major impetus for improving the forms and methods of our work to maintain our leading positions in this high-tech sector.
We should analyse the situation on regional markets constantly, in real time, noting the buyers’ changing requirements and meeting their growing demand.
The goals of the state policy in the field of military technical cooperation and the main spheres of our activities have been formalised in the military technical cooperation strategy approved in October. I would like to ask the Government to adopt a roadmap on its implementation.
You should focus primarily on the CSTO and CIS member states and our other traditional partners, including those in Africa. They account for over one-third of Russian military exports.
I would like to say a few words about the recent Russian-African Summit in this context. It has reaffirmed that reliable and responsible military technical cooperation is a priority in our relations with our African partners.
Based on the results of the summit, I would like to ask you to analyse the numerous proposals we have received for military technical cooperation, paying attention to their commercial value and applying flexible delivery and payment methods.
In addition, timely maintenance and good repairs are among the key parameters of the competitiveness of military products. We never stop talking about this.
We should stay close to the client and redouble efforts to increase the number of maintenance service centres in the clients’ countries. But we must also consider a new field – the establishment of joint ventures to produce spares for our equipment abroad.
It is an extremely important sphere, which calls for expanding the rights of parties to military technical cooperation and amending the legal framework correspondingly.
Let us talk about all this today. Please, proceed.
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December 16, 2019, The Kremlin, Moscow