KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, December 18. /TASS/. Russia consistently remains the second-biggest player on the global arms producing market, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Wednesday.

"Russia continues to firmly rank second among the top three leaders in the global arms business. And this, of course, is the achievement of all participants in a difficult and comprehensive process, including the design, manufacture and export of our arms," the deputy prime minister said in a message read out by the director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, at the annual award ceremony for the Golden Idea National Prize.

"In 2018, the exports of defense products stood at $15 billion, the same as in the previous years, while the portfolio of the parties’ orders for military-technical cooperation was $50 billion," Borisov stressed. "As many as 100 countries are among our partners," he pointed out.

Speaking on his own behalf, Dmitry Shugayev spotlighted the high potential of the Russian military-industrial sector. "A persistently high interest in our competitiveness means that despite external difficulties, Russian specialists are driven, creatively gifted and are ready to find the best solutions, achieving immense and even outstanding results in military-technical cooperation," Shugayev told the participants in the ceremony.

The Golden Idea National Prize was established to encourage exports of Russian military products, design and produce cutting-edge arms and military hardware, upgrade earlier exported products, as well as streamline Russia’s military-technical cooperation with foreign contractors.