Russia, South Africa seek joint arms production

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Russia and South Africa have "perspective projects" in joint arms development and production, a Russian official from military and technical cooperation service said on Thursday.

Russia is interested in cooperation with South Africa, as the latter has the most developed military-industrial complex on the continent, Dmitry Shugaev, the head of Russian Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation, told reporters on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi.

"There are promising projects of cooperation in the field of joint development and production of weapons and military equipment both for the national armed forces of our states and in the interests of third countries," he said.

Shugaev positively assessed Russia’s cooperation with African countries, saying that sub-Saharan Africa's portfolio of orders for Russian defense products exceeded $2 billion while the African countries account 30-40% of the total Russian arms export.

Russia’s coastal city Sochi is hosting the Russia-Africa summit which kicked off on Wednesday with an economic forum.

Co-chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s leader Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the global event will see Thursday the leaders and top officials of the African countries examining the current state and prospects of Russia's relations with African countries and discuss the expansion of the economic, political, technical and cultural cooperation.