Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Friday that the world is facing a new arms race, RIA news agency reported.
"It is not our fault because we did not start it," said the president, who chaired a meeting of the consultative State Council to outline the concept of strategic long-term development of the country up to the year 2020.
"The developed countries, leaning on their technological superiority, spend huge amounts of funds, many times as much as we spend, on developing new defensive and offensive weapons," he said.
Putin stressed that Russia would not be drawn into the new arms race and exhaust its economy and resources.
The building of the Russian armed forces in the years to 2020 should be carried out proceeding from challenges and threats existing in the world, he said, adding that Russia will start to produce new weapons that "are not inferior, but sometimes superior to foreign analogues" in the coming years.
However, the funding of the military industrial sector "must not be at the cost of the country's socioeconomic development," he added.
Relations between Russia and NATO have been strained over Washington's plans to deploy a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, Moscow's suspension of a landmark arms treaty and disagreements over the future of Kosovo.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article