Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire were main buyers of Belarusian arms in 2003
By Belarusian news agency Belapan
MINSK, Jan 12, 2004 (Belapan) — According to the data provided by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry for the UN Register of Conventional Arms, Sudan and Cote d’Ivoire were the main purchasers of Belarusian armaments and military equipment in 2003. Belarus is yet to prove the UN with information about arms sales in 2004.
A total of nine BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, 39 BRDM-2 armoured reconnaissance vehicles, 16 122-mm D-30 towed howitzers, 10 self-propelled Gvozdika 2C1 howitzers, four 9P138 Grad-1 multiple-launch rocket system and two Grad systems were sold by Belarus to Sudan.
Cote d’Ivoire acquired one BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle, 13 BRDM-2 armoured reconnaissance vehicles, six BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers, six Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, 10 82-mm BM-37 mortars, and two training-combat SU-25UB fighter-bombers from Belarus.
In addition Belarus supplied Sweden with four 9M313 rockets used in portable surface-to-air missile system Igla-1.
The sums of the contracts were not disclosed.
As Belapan learned from the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Andrey Savinykh, Belarus has been regularly providing information for the UN Register of Conventional Arms.
The head of the marketing and advertising department of Beltekhekspart — Belarusian state-owned arms exporter–, Vyachaslaw Sheyda, said that in 2003-04 Belarus was among the 20 leading armaments exporters in the world. “We are confidently maintaining our position in this list and will do our utmost to remain in this prestigious list,” he said at a news conference on 22 December 2004.
In 1999 Belarus was among the 10 main arms exporters. Sheyda ascribed this deterioration to depleted stocks of weaponry and military equipment and specific features of the military equipment manufactured and updated at Belarusian enterprises.
Material from the BBC Monitoring Service, original in Belarusian