MOSCOW

Russian Federal Service of Military and Technical Cooperation called de-dollarization, forgoing dollar as the only currency of payment, "central trend" on the arms sales market.

The de-dollarization trend has emerged because of some "obvious reasons," the service said in an exclusive statement for Anadolu Agency.

"Most of our partners are constantly working on improving the forms and methods of payments, considering, in particular, the possibility of using non-traditional forms of settlements and mutual settlements in national currencies.

"Meanwhile, the central trend of trade in arms and special equipment today is forgoing dollar as the only currency of payment, which is happening for quite objective reasons," it said.

Russia exports its arms, military equipment and other related services to the clients from 50 countries, and the book of orders rose 10%, reaching $55 billion, the service added.

"Russia's military and technical cooperation dynamics are stable. As in the previous two years, at the end of 2018, the volume of exports of products for military purposes remained at $15 billion.

"The portfolio of export orders rose and now amounts to about $55 billion [compared to $50 billion in 2018]. This volume provides a stable load of export orders of Russian defense enterprises in the medium term," it said.

Moscow constantly works on expanding geography of arms sales, and today it has defense cooperation with 107 countries under relevant intergovernmental agreements.

"Our approach does not seek to link military-technical cooperation with the implementation of additional political conditions by the partners or with attempts to interfere in their sovereign affairs.

"And we are open to dialogue on the development of the military and technical cooperation with any legitimate government," it stressed.

Russia is the second-large arms exporter in the world, 166 of the 190 UN member countries bought Russian arms at least once.

The principal buyers of Russian weapons are India, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh in Asia; Iran and Iraq in the Middle East; Algeria in Africa and Nicaragua in Latin America.

Recently, Moscow has been active in the Middle East, signed a number of contracts with the Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.