China accounts for 15% of Russian arms exports - agency
MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Although Russia's military-technical cooperation with China has slightly declined in recent years, its level is still high, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said.
"Last year, arms and military hardware exports topped $13 billion. China's share in this volume was about 15 per cent. This is considerable," the agency's deputy director Vyacheslav Dzirkaln told Interfax-AVN.
Given the significant supplies to India and Venezuela, the decline in cooperation with China does not look significant, he said.
"China was and remains one of Russia's strategic partners in the sphere of military-technical cooperation," Dzirkaln said.
Today China is keener on our technologies rather than products, he said.
"Hardware is being bought for certain goals and objectives. To date, China has mainly formed its aviation units, air defense brigades and equipped them with modern hardware. As the equipment gets obsolete, China will certainly be replacing and renewing the decommissioned equipment," Dzirkaln said.
Today China is actively involved in the design and production of combat hardware, using, among others, our experience, too, he said.
