It is planned to open an aircraft assembly plant in Baku, says Russia's deputy PM

BAKU, August 8. /TASS/. Both Azerbaijan and Iran are interested in Russia as the biggest exporter of high-quality weapons, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday after talks between the leaders of�Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Rogozin noted that the countries of the region are getting consolidated in the face of common threats, with close location of hotbeds of local conflicts and spreading extremist influence among them.

"These are common threats. And common threats should be repelled not only through solidarity, through such meetings and discussion of ways of rebuffing challenges by political means, but also through physical strengthening. And in this context, both Azerbaijan and Iran are interested in Russia as the biggest exported of high-quality and affordable weapons," he said.

He said the issues of military technical cooperation at the trilateral talks stemmed for the general discussion of security problems in the regions. "Discussion of military technical cooperation topics was a logical consequence of the subject of security," he added.
Helicopter center,�plane-assembly plant to be opened in Baku

Rogozin went on to say that a�helicopter center and an aircraft-assembly plant will be opened in Baku.

"A helicopter center will be established in Baku. There are many planes and helicopter of the Soviet and Russia make in Azerbaijan. So, they will be modernized and serviced in Azerbaijan," he said.

Apart from that, he said it is planned to "open an aircraft assembly plant in Baku." It will make it possible for Azerbaijan to join the narrow circle of countries which have aircraft-building industries.

Azerbaijan is interested in buying Russian MC-21 planes

According to Rogozin,�Azerbaijan is interested in buying Russian MC-21 planes and Russia hopes to sign a contract for ten such aircraft by February 2017.
"Azerbaijan is interested in buying Russian MC-21 planes. And after the first flight of this plane - we plan it will take place either at the end of this year or at the beginning of the next year - we want to sign a contract for at least ten MC-21 planes in February," Rogozin said.

Apart from that, Moscow and Baku discussed Azerbaijan�s plans to buy Ruslan An-124 planes. "It is a serious deal and it will be stricken already next year," he said.

The Russian deputy prime minister noted that despite a decline in economic cooperation in the monetary terms in the past 12 to 18 months, physical volumes of cooperation are still preserved. And to encourages further growth "we are developing cooperation in non-traditional sector, such as industry and high technologies," although the focus in the previous years was on agriculture, Rogozin noted.

By TASS