BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/11/2007

Belarus to modernize its weapons - president

MINSK. Nov 27 (Interfax) - Belarus' own military industry will be the main source of modernization of the country's armaments though some of its weapons will be purchased abroad, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

"The defense capability of the country is an extremely important element for us and for the entire society. To keep up with the times, one should buy new weapons and systems or modernize one's available armaments. We have opted for a third path: we will buy what we need, but the modernization of armaments must be the main goal," Lukashenko said during a visit to Belarus' defense industry agency.

"This is on the whole cheaper for us, and today we have set ourselves the goal of modernizing complex systems," he said. This will give "an impuetus to our industry and make military engineers work more intensively."

"We have achieved certain success in modernization as regards the air force, the land forces, surface-to-air missile systems," Lukashenko said.

"If we learn to do this here, we will be able to provide services [to other countries] where such weapons are used," he said.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/340109/news.aspx

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