MOSCOW, September 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will not artificially sever cooperation with foreign partners, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

He called for preserving ties with partners despite the import substitution program.

“We are not going to artificially sever cooperation with foreign partners but existing risks must be taken into account,” Putin said at a meeting on a new armaments programme for 2015-2025.

“Our industry must be ready to make critically important equipment, components and materials, have sufficient manufacturing capacities, technologies and technical stocks,” the president said.

He said the new armaments program should keep defense enterprises operating at full capacity but at the same time make allowances for civilian production in the long term, primarily in such key areas as machine-tools, power and mining equipment, and means of transportation.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia would need to assess potential threats to its military security most thoroughly and respond appropriately.

“We must assess potential threats to Russia’s military security most thoroughly and give a sufficient response to each of them,” he said.

Several years ago the United States unilaterally seceded from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, he said. “They are now actively creating a missile defence system, with no progress in the talks anywhere in sight,” Putin said.

The US is also building missile defense capabilities in Europe and Alaska near the Russian borders and is pursing the prompt global strike policy, the president said.

There are also other things that worry the Russian leadership, including Western military space programs, the use of non-nuclear strategic weapons, and others, he said.

“There are many new threats emerging, and recently NATO made the decision to increase its military presence in Eastern Europe. The crisis in Ukraine, which was provoked and created by our Western partners is now being used for reviving this military bloc,” Putin said.

He said Russia would have to do its best to ensure its security “absolutely effectively and reliably”.

Putin said Russia had repeatedly warned that it would have to respond in order to ensure its own security. “We have said this many times. And I hope there will be no unnecessary hysterics when we make these decisions and start implementing them,” he said.