MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has established military-technical cooperation with several new countries, mostly from the former Warsaw Pact and former Soviet Union this year, Alexander Denisov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Committee for International Military Technical Cooperation, said on Monday.
"It has turned out that it is too expensive for many Eastern European nations to adopt Western armaments, and modernization of arms made in the former Soviet Union is much cheaper, Denisov told a news conference at the Interfax main office.
Asked by Interfax-Military News Agency about prospects of military-technical cooperation with the CIS member nations and in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty, Denisov said that "Russia maintains the closest ties in this sphere with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan."
He admitted that the problem of competition on arms markets of third countries is not fully solved so far. "We have signed a corresponding agreement with Belarus and are negotiating on the matter with Ukraine and Kazakhstan," the official said.
Speaking about arms trade in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty, Denisov said that "after the State Duma ratified the agreement on military-technical cooperation with member nations of the treaty, prices of arms supplied to regional security forces of those countries will be equal to the prices of arms supplied to the Russian army."