BANGKOK, September 17. /TASS/. Thailand is interested in developing military and technical cooperation with Russia, Russian Ambassador to Thailand Kirill Barsky said in an interview with TASS.

"Military and technical cooperation is a normal business with inevitable competition, which, I hope, will be of a healthy nature on the local market," he stressed. "We understand the kingdom’s aspiration as a state that imports armaments and military equipment to diversify its ties to foreign counterparties, including the Russian Federation." "Russia and Thailand have never been close partners in the sphere of military and technical cooperation, however, currently, there are favorable conditions for its development against solid normative and legal framework. There are no military or political disagreements between our countries, and the atmosphere of mutual trust is emerging, which often predetermines the stable base for building military and technical cooperation," the diplomat stated.

He informed that in recent years, Russia has been holding active negotiations with Thailand on expanding the line of exported production that the Thai Armed Forces are interested in. "However, earlier, we mainly talked about small contracts on delivering Russian Mi-17 military transport helicopters, separate batches of small arms, or weapon systems for armored vehicles." "Now we see that Bangkok is ready to discuss not only these purchases, but also dual-use equipment, for example, aircrafts that can be used for military or civilian purposes. And this is just the beginning," he said.

The ambassador expressed his confidence that "joint research projects in the sphere of development of new models of weapons and military equipment are just around the corner.".