Following the Moscow meeting of the intergovernmental commission that he co-chairs on Russia’s behalf, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia hopes to sign a number of agreements on licensing production of Russian and Soviet military hardware in Slovakia.

“Relevant decisions will be made in the next few months. Slovakia will be the first in the West to make them and I don’t rule out that these decisions will be followed by new contracts on a new licensing basis,” Mr Rogozin said.

He added that Moscow and Bratislava intend to expand cooperation on servicing Soviet and Russian helicopters in Slovakia. “We have agreed that our colleagues from the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation and production companies (Russian Helicopters and Oboronprom) will visit Slovakia in the near future. They will familiarise themselves with production matters and consider opportunities for expanding this technological platform to service helicopters in Slovakia,” Mr Rogozin said. He added that Slovakia has many high-tech enterprises that could service and repair Soviet and Russian helicopters.