Deputy Chief Of Kremlin Administration Comments On Presidential Decree On Military Technical Cooperation

The Russian President has signed a decree on military-technical co-operation, which envisages that measures taken in 2000 to reinforce Russia's military-technical cooperation /MTC/ with foreign countries will today give the green light for establishing an ideal framework for arms exports. A statement to this effect was made by the deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Prikhodko. According to him, these measures will result in growing exports. "Foreign customers are showing more and more interest in Russian weaponry and military equipment. In these conditions the question of maintenance and repairs of the delivered military products is gaining significant importance," said Prikhodko. In addition, he stated that the presidential decree "provides for expanding the number of organisations and companies involved in MTC, in particular, those dealing with the delivery of spare parts, units, training and auxiliary goods for former orders, and maintaining and repairing these products." This has simplified the process of obtaining an appropriate licence as compared with that regarding supplies of military products and hardware. This will assist in orders being processed more efficiently. The state intermediary "Rosoboronexport" and enterprises which have a license for foreign sales of the finished product, are getting the opportunity to concentrate on promoting new products for the defence industry, said Prikhodko.