KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, August 23. /TASS/. Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport plans to keep its order book at about $50 billion and deliver armaments worth $13 billion this year despite the pandemic, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheyev told TASS in the run-up to the Army-2020 international military and technical forum on Sunday.
The planned figures for 2020 were formulated at the end of last year and no one presumed at that time that the world and Russia, in particular, would be confronted with such a large-scale coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, the chief executive said.
"But we all know what happened: the borders were closed and self-isolation was introduced. But we did not adjust our plans: they remain the same at the level of the past few years of our successful work: the order book at about $50 billion and the amount of deliveries at $13 billion," he said.
Rosoboronexport constantly analyzes the situation and makes timely adjustments to honor its contractual commitments and also signs new contracts even in the most difficult conditions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Mikheyev stressed.
"This is why Rosoboronexport’s order book remains within the planned parameters and its geography extends to 68 countries of the world. I hope these two indicators will increase," the chief executive said.
The Rosoboronexport chief also named the regions in the company’s order book: the Asia-Pacific, which accounts for almost a half of all orders, followed by the Middle East and North Africa, European and CIS countries, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.