MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian-Italian agreement "On Cooperation in Military-Technical Issues and in Defense Industry", signed 10 years ago, provided a legal basis for carrying out large-scale projects with such Italian companies as Finmeccanica, Fincantieri, AleniaAermacchi, Alenia Aeronautica, Galileo Avionica, Selex Communications, Alcatel Alenia Spazio, and Avio.
"Today about 20 joint projects are being fulfilled in the sphere of aviation, design and production of avionics and communication systems, military shipbuilding. Russia and Italy have also advanced in joint realization of Italian space programs," the press service of the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader said in a Wednesday release.
From Tuesday to Thursday, Rome is hosting a regular meeting of the Russian-Italian intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation and celebrations timed to the 10th anniversary of the agreement.
"One of the midpoints of the anniversary is the presentation of the Rosoboronexport Representative Office that has been recently set up in Italy," the release reads.
The invited are the representatives of the Italian Defense and Foreign Ministries, those of political and business circles.
Italy is one of the few European counties that successfully cooperates with Russia in the field of defense products. One of the most striking examples of the Russian-Italian military-technical integration is the design of the new training plane. On its base Italy has designed the M346 trainer while the Russian version of the plane - the Yak-130 combat trainer - has already been adopted in the Russian Air Force and is in a great demand in the international market.
At the recent Euronaval 2006 international exhibition in Paris, another joint Russian-Italian project was demonstrated, this being the S100 non-atomic submarine produced in the framework of the contract signed between Rosoboronexport and Fincantieri.
The wide experience of joint work also features the projects of design and production of military communication systems. Some of the systems were used for conducting joint Russian-NATO exercises.