News Story: Russia Seeks To Energize Asian Presence

S-400 system (Image: Wiki Commons)

By Matthew Bodner

MOSCOW — With Russia's defense industry cut off from Western markets following a series of sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union last summer, Moscow has been hyping up efforts to bolster its presence in Asia.

Russian arms exports already have a firm presence in the region. According to a report released earlier this year by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), more than 60 percent of Russian arms exports go to Asia and Oceania.

India and China in particular command a large percentage of these orders. As a share of total Russian arms transfers from 2010 to 2014, India and China represented 39 and 11 percent of Russian arms transfers, respectively.

As Russia's political and economic relations with the West collapsed last year over Moscow's actions in the Ukraine crisis, the Kremlin and senior Russian government officials have been pushing the development of a new Sino-Russian alliance to counter Western influence.

This has resulted in a number of joint-project announcements — from the co-design and production of new military transport aircraft, heavy-lift helicopters and even the sale of advanced Russian rocket engines to the Chinese space program.

Read the full story at DefenseNews