MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told reporters on Saturday about some results of his first official visits to Brazil and Peru /on October 14-17/.
The negotiations on Brazil’s possible purchases of Pantsir-S1 complexes /NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound/ are at their final stage, the minister said.
“We are continuing consultations now, but drafting a final document requires time,” he said. Pantsir-S1 is the Russian anti-aircraft missile and gun ground-based system, developed by Tula’s Design Bureau. The system is designed to fight aerospace attacks. It covers particularly important military and civil facilities. The complex can installed both on wheeled or tracked vehicles.
Shoigu told reporters that Russia had suggested to Brazil cooperating in development of the space sector, including in “making joint satellites and of a separate programme for Brazil’s space development.” “We have agreed to organise a working group of professionals, experts, which will begin drafting suggestions on this part of our cooperation,” he said adding the two countries had been discussing cooperation in probing the Earth and in communications.
Russia and Brazil have good chances for development of the military-technical cooperation, the defence minister said, “from air defence systems to the fifth generation’s planes.”
Sergei Shoigu said a military delegation from Peru may visit Russia soon to learn more about Russian-made armoured vehicles. “We are speaking here about an extended format of presenting our equipment, including T-90S tanks, at a Russian firing field,” he said. During the visit to Peru, the Russian delegation suggested organising a joint service centre for helicopters. “We are on the edge of major, important projects in the military-technical cooperation – for Peru, it would mean mostly helicopters. Now, the counterparts would like to buy not only the product itself, but also everything for its service and for joint production – I mean the armoury,” he added.
While speaking about improvement of Russia’s positions in the South American market of armoury, Shoigu said the Russian offers made in Peru and Brazil at least are not worse than those coming from other countries. “Why should Russia remain aside? We have dynamically developing industry, and, while in the past we used to say we had been using the past research, now we are saying we have been using not only those.”
Shoigu stressed specifically that the improvement of direct contacts between Russia and South American counterparts in the military-technical cooperation was not related to the events in Syria.