Russia touts arms upgrade to Asia

MALAYSIA: Russia has quite a few arms upgrade offers to make to its Asian trade partners, Russian presidential adviser Alexander Burutin said in a RIA interview on Thursday after the international Defense Services Asia (DSA) 2004 show in Kuala Lumpur.

Held on a biannual basis, the arms show is Asia's largest and the second largest in the world.

This year, Russia made a special emphasis on arms upgrade opportunities, Burutin said. According to him, modernization allows an appreciable boost in the combat capabilities of old armaments and military hardware at just one-fifth the price of new equipment.

In recent years, Russia has exported about 5,000 T-72 tanks, over 12,500 armored personnel vehicles and various aircraft systems.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Najib Razak and 150 local arms expert groups visited the Russian pavilion at the latest DSA show this week. -- RIA Novosti