RIO DE JANEIRO, April 6. /TASS/. A number of countries in Latin America have taken interest in Russia’s ice class ships and minesweepers, the deputy director of Russia’s federal service for military-technical cooperation, Anatoly Punchuk, has told the media.

"I won’t say this concerns all our ships, but our partners have taken great interest in ice class ships, minesweepers and some other vessels," said Punchuk, Russia’s chief delegate to the ongoing LAAD-2017 arms show.

This is the first time Russia has begun to promote its naval products on the Latin American market.

Interest in Russian weaponry

Representatives of South American and African countries are holding active negotiations with Russian arms producers at the LAAD-2017 international defense exhibition in Brazil, he went on. 

"The negotiation rooms of Russian producers are constantly busy and negotiators are actually standing in line to get there as a very good dialog is under way," Punchuk said.

"Moreover, the dialog is under way with representatives of both the Latin American region and Africa. This is very good dynamics, which drastically differs from the sentiments of the previous exhibition that was held two years ago," Punchuk said.

Great interest has been displayed in Russian armaments but no contracts are expected at the exhibition, he said.

"We hope for eventual accords that can lay the basis for future contracts," Punchuk said.

"The interest has been displayed by some countries and this interest is at quite a high level but I wouldn’t want to speak prematurely about the projects, under which a dialog is under way," Punchuk said.

It was reported earlier that a factory was under construction in Venezuela for the production of Kalashnikov AK-103 assault rifles and most of the equipment was ready for assembly.