Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan and Ukraine will soon embark on joint production of anti-tank rockets, Azerbaijani Defense Industry Minister Yaver Jamalov has said.

"The Skif and Barrier rockets can be both installed on helicopters and fired from combat vehicles," he told the Baku-based APA news agency.

According to Jamalov, Azerbaijan first negotiated the issue with Denel, South Africa’s largest manufacturer of defense equipment, but the talks stalled as the company’s proposals were not accepted by Baku.

Jamalov said a group of Defense Industry Ministry experts would head to Ukraine later on Tuesday to study domestic production. Afterwards, an agreement will be signed with the country’s design bureau Luch to launch joint production of rockets in Azerbaijan, he said.

Also, Azerbaijan is in talks with the Czech Republic on the assembly of L-159 ALCA advanced light combat aircraft in Baku and their joint sales. The issue is to be discussed during Czech President Vaclav Klaus’ official visit to Azerbaijan, which began on Monday, Jamalov said.

The Azerbaijani minister had a meeting at the AERO Vodochody company producing L-159 warplanes during his visit to the Czech Republic in January. The Czech company offered to jointly assemble the warplanes in Azerbaijan and further sell them to other regional countries.