AFP, MOSCOW: Kazakh Defence Minister Mukhtar Altnybayev arrived in Moscow on Friday at the start of a two-day visit promising that his ex-Soviet country was interested in placing major orders for Russian weaponry.
The visit comes after a reported rift between Moscow and Astana over Kazahstan's plans to hand a billion-dollar contract to modernize its air defence network to the United States, Germany and Britain.
“Military-technical cooperation with Russia is a priority for Kazakhstan, since most of our military equipment is of Soviet or Russian manufacture,” Altnybayev said in an interview published in the Russian army's Krasnaya Zvezda daily.
The minister, who will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov, said that the energy-rich Central Asian state was looking for modern military airplanes, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, missiles and artillery as well as air defence equipment.
A high-ranking official in the Russian defence industry told the Interfax news agency that Russia was still hoping to persuade Kazakhstan to opt for Russian radars and air defence systems.
“We expect Altnybayev's visit to Moscow to be successful and for Russian defence enterprises to secure a major contract,” said the unnamed official, adding that the Kazakh minister would visit a plant producing air defence equipment.
