MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian arms exporters expanded the range of their clients and achieved some success on newly-opened markets last year, Alexander Denisov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian committee for military-technical cooperation with foreign nations, said on Tuesday.
The goal to expand the range of countries procuring Russian arms has been relevant for a few years, Denisov told Interfax- Military News Agency. Some progress has been made in this sphere in 2002. This was mostly achieved by minor arms exporters, not the major state-owned arms trader Rosoboronexport.
The MIG aircraft corporation worked successfully in Africa and the Tula-based Machine-Building Design Bureau achieved some success on Arab markets, Denisov said.
"There is still a lot of Soviet hardware on those markets, and there are objective opportunities for returning there," he noted.
Denisov mentioned Latin America among the most promising markets. "There is also a lot of our hardware there that was supplied both in Soviet and post-Soviet times," he said. In particular, Russian arms traders are interested in developing contacts with Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay. The latter country has recently procured a large batch of Russian KamAZ trucks.
Speaking about prospects of Russian arms traders on the European market, Denisov said that Eastern European countries are no longer in euphoria about joining NATO, and they have started to turn back to Russia again.
Russian arms traders are returning to Bulgaria, working with Slovakia and Hungary and establishing relations with Poland, especially in the sphere of helicopters, Denisov went on.
"Several years ago it seemed that everything is closed for us in Europe, but now the situation is changing, and there are quite good prospects. Of course, we should not expect European countries making massive arms procurement from us, but we have a broad field of activity concerning repairs and modernization of earlier exported hardware. We made some headway on the European market last year," he said.
Speaking about Russia's place on the arms market, Denisov said it could be broader, "if we could credit the customers and grant them deferments regarding part of payments." The quality of exported armament is also a problem, he stressed.
"We have never said it publicly that we have a quality problem. But the number of customers' claims concerning the quality of exported armament has increased," Denisov said.
He called for taking into account the contraction of the global arms market over the past few years. At the same time, competition has not lots its intensity. Ukraine, Belarus and several Eastern European nations have started operating on the arms market. Under such circumstances, it is very difficult to boost the arms exports volume. Thus, the increase of Russia's arms exports volume to USD4.8bn in 2002 is a major success, the official concluded.