India, China keen to buy new Russian weapons: Putin aide
June 4, 2015, 5:02 am

The Victory Day parade featured flyovers from military helicopters and jets, a march-past of 16,000 troops, and the procession of missile systems [PPIO]

Indian and Chinese Presidents had attended the the 70^th anniversary of the victory against Nazi Germany in World War II. India is a top importer of Russian weapons.

“Interest has been demonstrated. The weapons are new and expensive. For the most part, by our traditional partners: India, China and Southeast Asia,” Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Kozhin told Russian daily Izvestia.

The Armata is highly computerised, and could form the basis for a fully automated robot tank in future. It is the first major tank to be developed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is based on a fundamentally new design rather than just an update of older models. There are plans to build more than 2,000 of them.

The tank, which will eventually be called the T-14, has not yet been delivered to the army and is still undergoing factory tests.

Foreign buyers will have to wait for the tank as it will first be delivered to the Russian army, said Kozhin.

The Victory Day parade featured flyovers from military helicopters and jets, a march-past of 16,000 troops, and the procession of missile systems.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma were seated beside Putin as they watched the parade at the Red Square in Moscow on May 9.

Zuma later hit back at the West’s boycott of the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, saying the event “defines how the globe stands today”.

“When it comes to the commemoration today, it has been an overwhelmingly good day and a big day for the country, but I think for many of us. I think it defines how the globe stands today to some degree and I think it is very clear, and to have so many good friends come together,” Zuma told Putin in Moscow.

“I think this has been one of the days that defined the friends and relationships and everything. I think today it was clearer than any other day,” Zuma noted.

Other Presidents that attended the 70^th anniversary of the end of the war included Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt, Raúl Castro of Cuba, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Russia remains the world’s second biggest seller of arms behind the United States, increasing its share by 37 per cent in 2010-2014. China has boosted exports by 143 per cent, squeezing out Germany from the top three exporters.

Russian weapons were exported to 56 countries, with India, China and Algeria making for almost 60 per cent of total sales, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its 2015 Yearbook released in March.

TBP