Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in a meeting of the commission on military-technical cooperation between Russia and foreign countries. One of the topics discussed during the meeting related to the export of Russian arms and the volume of orders from foreign states.
According to the data presented, we can say that the Russian defense industry continues to break its own records in terms of exports. According to Vladimir Putin, in the first five months of 2016 alone, the volume of supplies of military equipment and weapons for export in monetary terms amounted to $ 4.6 billion (more than 320 billion rubles). At the same time, the total portfolio of orders for military equipment and weapons from Russia exceeded $ 50 billion (about 3.6 trillion rubles).
The Kremlin press service quotes a statement from the president of the country regarding the main operators of Russian weapons and the expansion of sales markets:
It is important that the geography of supplies is consistently expanding, new intergovernmental agreements are being signed, and bilateral working groups are being created. At the same time, it is necessary to further increase the effectiveness of military-technical cooperation, to act in this area more clearly and in a more coordinated manner. At the same time, we need to be prepared for the fact that the intensification of our efforts will undoubtedly exacerbate competition. (…) Domestic weapons and military equipment prove their effectiveness and reliability in a variety of conditions. They are in service in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. In this regard, I would like to thank the Russian arms exporters who, in the face of tough competition, are successfully operating in the new realities, and who adequately respond to the sometimes unfair actions of our opponents.
Under the unfair actions of opponents (note that the President of Russia called the opponents exactly opponents, and not “partners”), Vladimir Putin understands, of course, those restrictive anti-Russian measures of an economic nature, with which competing countries are trying to narrow the market for the sale of Russian weapons as well … In particular, one of these measures led to the fact that even small arms from the Russian Federation, not to mention large military equipment, were not allowed to the exhibition in Paris.
India and China are among the traditional buyers of significant shipments of Russian weapons. At the same time, against the background of the growth of the Indian share of Russian arms exports ($ 5.5 billion in 2015), the Chinese share is decreasing ($ 2.6 billion). And if a few years ago the PRC occupied a leading position in terms of the volume of military-technical cooperation with Russia, now the situation has changed. There are several reasons for this.
First, China's technological resource has grown significantly along with a significant increase in Chinese GDP (over the past few years, the average level of Chinese economic growth has been at around 7-9% per year); secondly, the Chinese negotiators can certainly be called too stubborn. Almost any contract for the supply of Russian arms, Chinese opponents (or “partners) tried (are trying) to link either with the simultaneous transfer of technology, or even with the licensing of Chinese production of certain Russian-developed equipment. If the arms seller does not agree to such a deal, then China does not hesitate to reserve the right to "copy-paste" - that is, technological copying with renaming and issuing as a product of Chinese military-technical production.
However, this does not mean at all that contracts for the supply of arms from Russia with other partners are concluded, as they say, for one or two. With the same India, no less complicated negotiations are being conducted than with China, and often a contract is concluded only on the basis of New Delhi's participation in cooperation with Moscow.
On July 11, the exhibition "Innoprom-2016" opens in Yekaterinburg, the partner country of which this time is India. The organizers of the exhibition are planning to conclude a whole list of contracts with Indian colleagues, and these contracts are planned to be concluded far from only in the field of direct military-technical cooperation. The issues of concluding agreements in the field of energy, space exploration, in the field of transport, mechanical engineering, and urban projects are being worked out.
Press service of Innoprom-2016:
The INNOPROM business program will begin on July 11 with the Russian-Indian Business Forum, which will be attended by the heads of government bodies and big business from both countries. The INNOPROM program includes a number of bilateral events on topics such as mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical industry, mining, IT in industry, in addition, Indian experts will take part in the general business program of the exhibition.
One of the main mysteries of the Russian military-technical export market is its interaction with Saudi Arabia. In November 2015, the media announced the conclusion between Moscow and Riyadh of the largest contract for the supply of Russian arms to the Saudis. The newspaper "Vedomosti", then referring to sources in "Rostec" and "Rosoboronexport", reported the estimated volume of the contract - $ 10 billion. At the same time, for the first time, information was announced about Saudi Arabia's interest in acquiring S-400 Trumph anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.
The information that Russia may supply Riyadh with S-400 air defense systems caused a great stir. The reason for the excitement is associated with far from good relations in the Middle East - for example, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Moreover, Russia has just begun to supply the S-300 to the more loyal-minded Iran, which should have been delivered several years ago.
There is still no official confirmation that Saudi Arabia is ready to purchase weapons from the Russian Federation for $ 10 billion at once. Frankly speaking, this is not the first time that the Saudis have come out with promises to “buy” weapons from Russia for an impressive amount. So, in 2009, the Russian media, citing some sources in Riyadh, also published material that Saudi Arabia was going to buy from Russia a large batch (more than 150 units) of T-90S tanks and about 250 BMP-3s. As a result, after lengthy discussions on this topic, it turned out that the Saudis were not going to buy such quantities of Russian armored vehicles. The main reasoning for the T-90S tanks is the need to install air conditioners (in a hot desert climate). While they were discussing the installation of air conditioners, information came that the Saudis had signed a contract with France for the supply of Leclerc tanks. A number of Western sources then came out with materials telling that Riyadh refused to purchase weapons from Russia for the reason that Russia did not refuse to support Iran's nuclear program.
Now Iran does not have a nuclear program (even the EU and the US have partially lifted the sanctions against Tehran), and therefore, what Riyadh is trying to link its "10-billion" promises with is anyone's guess. With Moscow's refusal to support Bashar al-Assad?.. If we consider that there is no official confirmation of the data on the signing of the contract, then this is quite possible, especially given the fact that for the Saudis, the signing of such a contract is a serious political step, which is being watched by the United States and will simply not be allowed to take it, having lost part of the traditional for yourself the market …
Against this background, Russia continues to increase its presence in its traditional markets: Algeria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iraq, Latin American countries. Thus, one of the stages in the development of cooperation with Latin American partners is agreements on the placement of facilities for the repair and maintenance of helicopter equipment, as well as for the training of flight personnel, which in the "eternally preoccupied" West have already been dubbed "the creation of Russian military bases."
In terms of total arms exports, Russia consistently ranks second - 24-25% of the world market (after the United States - about 33% of the market), keeping a large lead over the third position. By the way, China is in third position (according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute). The Chinese share rose to almost 6%, surpassing the French share by 0.3-0.4%.
Attention is drawn to the fact that the share of European arms manufacturers in the world export system has declined against the background of an increase in the share of the American one. This is an eloquent confirmation that the North Atlantic Alliance, with its manias and phobias, is one of the levers of Washington's promotion of the products of American military-technical companies. And in the face of increased competition, Russian successes in the field of arms exports cannot but inspire respect. How respect in the world market is caused by the Russian weapons themselves, which effectively demonstrate their capabilities not only during training events, but also during military operations against international terrorist groups in Syria.
