MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The ongoing administrative reform in Russia must not make dramatic changes to the current system of control over military-technical cooperation, Sergei Chemezov, director general of the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader, said on Monday.
"During the reform, it is important to keep the succession of management and activity of the 30 intergovernmental commissions on military technical cooperation that function in Russia," Chemezov told a conference of Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives.
According to him, the Russian military cooperation system fully meets the demands of both domestic suppliers and foreign customers. It has proven capable and efficient.
Chemezov stressed that support of national presidents plays a solid part in promoting Russian arms on the global market. "Heads of state did not lobby its arms producers abroad so actively," he said.
"Changes in the military technical cooperation system must primarily deal with optimizing the process of making decisions on military-purpose exports by state bodies. In order to streamline the order of supplying spare parts and components to Russian arms pieces exported before, as well as to improve their servicing, it is expedient, in particular, to settle issues of using general licenses and notifications while coordinating draft decisions," Chemezov said.
Rosoboronexport is improving payment conditions, working out a flexible and balanced price policy, expanding the range of exported products, and increasing the number of customer countries in the framework of the active and offensive marketing concept, he went on. Russia currently sells arms to 70 countries, while 43 countries are hosting Rosoboronexport's permanent offices.
Russia's military technical cooperation with CIS nations is of special importance, because preservation of the partner countries' defense industry potential largely depends on it, the director general said.
As to members of NATO and the EU, cooperation with them is viewed beyond the scope of export-import operations, Chemezov noted. It should cover joint research, development and production of arms and special-purpose hardware for equipping multinational anti-terrorist units, as well as their training, he said.