Russia concerned about decrease in arms export to India, China

Moscow, Feb 20 (UNI) First Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of defence industry, Sergei Ivanov, today expressed concern over the decreasing share of Russian arms exports to India and China.

''The main buyers of Russian arms are India and China, but their share in Russia's overall arms exports is continuing to decrease,'' Interfax news agency quoted Ivanov as saying at a meeting of the State Council Presidium in Volgograd.

He was referring to successful diversification of exports of arms and military hardware.

''Diversification has been observed in this segment of exports.

Arms exports have been growing, but the share of key buyers (India, China), has been decreasing, which means that our market has been expanding,'' he said.

''All contracts for 2006 were finalised recently. Updated reports indicate that Russian arms exports amounted to 6.4 billion dollars in 2006, and our target for 2007 is 7.5 billion dollars,'' Mr Ivanov said, adding the share of exported spare parts and services had increased significantly (ten-times over the last four years).

India and China have remained leading buyers of Russian armaments, accounting for about 80 per cent of the country's total weapons exports.

However, the country has recently been seeking to expand its presence on the global arms markets, especially, in Latin America and the West Asia.

UNI