On August 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated at the official opening ceremony of the ARMY-2021 international forum. Russia’s major defense exhibition, which concluded on August 28, gathered delegations from 97 countries with 34 of them headed by Defense Ministers. Over 20,000 samples of military and dual-purpose products from 1,500 enterprises from Russia and 12 other countries were showcased.
At the event, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced 45 government contracts worth 500 billion rubles (about US $6.75 billion) are planned to be signed. According to him, deals from the show will include the supply to the Russian Army Army of T-90M MBTs, Uran-14 robotic vehicles as well as artillery, long-range missiles and remote mining systems. Other contracts being mentioned are for reconnaissance ships and minesweepers, aircraft supply and upgrade, as well as the latest high-precision weapons, the Minister added.
Just a few hours ahead of the opening ceremony, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev talked to the national media, presenting some details and figures of Russia’s defense technology international trade. The head of the state arms sales mediator stated the company has signed orders of US $52.1 billion to date.
This year Rosoboronexport has already implemented contracts worth US $5.2 billion with deliveries to 61 countries. New deals were signed for the sum of US $8.6 billion in the same period, added Mr. Mikheev. He emphasized full government support for defense exports. For example, compensation for bank interest rates is one of the measures being provided. Contracts worth US $2.5 billion were signed using to this scheme.
Mr. Mikheev believes the ARMY forum and associated military exercises is a perfect platform to showcase national defense products with live demonstrations – including firing trials. High ranking delegations from 35 countries were invited by Rosoboronexport with 17 of them being led by Ministers of Defense or Chiefs of Staff. As a result, Rosoboronexport expects to sign several further contracts, added Mikheev.
He mentioned Jordan as one of Russia’s traditional partners in industrial defense cooperation in the field of small arms and ammunition as His Majesty King Abdullah the Second attended the event. He also claimed that a deal for another batch of the S-400 long-range air defense systems are in the final stage of discussions with Turkey and is optimistic about concluding the deal.
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