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Deputy PM: Russia is of interest for Azerbaijan and Iran as weapons exporter

9 August 2016 17:58 (UTC+04:00)
Deputy PM: Russia is of interest for Azerbaijan and Iran as weapons exporter

By Nigar Abbasova

Russia is of interest for Azerbaijan and Iran as in the biggest exporter of high-quality weapons, Ria Novosti quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as saying.

He made the remark following the trilateral meeting between leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, on August 8. He also said that the countries of the region are getting consolidated in the face of common threats.

“Common threads should be repelled not only by means of solidarity, but through such meetings and discussions of ways of rebuffing challenges both politically and by means of physical strengthening,” he said.

He also mentioned that the issues of military-technical cooperation at the trilateral talks was stemmed by the general discussion of security problems in the region.

"Discussion of the issue of military technical cooperation was a logical consequence of the issue of security," he added.

Having a well developed military industry and being considered one of the leaders of the sphere, Russia ranks the second in the supply of military equipment and armament. The volume of export of Russian military equipment amounted to $14.5 billion in 2015.

Military experts believe that the reputation of Azerbaijan as a buyer of MIC products (military–industrial complex) is high, regardless the economic difficulties that the state is facing due to falling oil prices. Experts of the Moscow Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies believe that Russia needs such a large weapon industry player like Azerbaijan. Russia in considered to be the one of the main partners of Azerbaijan in military-technical cooperation along with Turkey, Israel and the U.S. and the two countries are engaged in the implementation major contracts in the sphere.

Azerbaijan supplies its army with modern weapons and technical equipment for maintaining a high level of combat capability, as the country is suffering from the occupation of its internationally recognized lands.

The country’s military expenditure has developed rapidly in recent years, and in a short time, the military budget has increased more than 20 times. The country takes steps to not to be dependent on a single source and diversify its strategy, therefore the country buys military products from many countries. Moreover, the country established its national military industry to avoid dependence on equipment from foreign countries.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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