A Russian official recently came out to reveal that Algeria is one of the three countries on the globe with the strongest defense ties to the Kremlin.
- Algeria is recognized as one of Russia’s top three military-technical partners, alongside China and India.
- Russia maintains strong defense ties with several African and Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Egypt, and Syria.
- Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state defense export agency, recently announced $20 billion in defense agreements across Africa.
- These agreements, totaling 150 contracts, involve military-technical cooperation with 46 African nations.
According to the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, who spoke to a Russian magazine on the subject, the North African country of Algeria ranks amongst China and India as the three nations that constitute Russia’s largest military-technical cooperation partners.
Shugayev, as seen on Sputnik, told the magazine that despite periodic changes in the scale of cooperation, the traditional top-three group remained unchanged.
He also noted that Russia keeps up military-technical cooperation with several longstanding allies in Africa and the Middle East, including Iran, the UAE, Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, the DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda.
This revelation is coming just days after Russia disclosed a $20 billion defense trade with Africa via its sole state intermediary agency for Russia’s trade of defense-related products.
Rosoboronexport $20 billion defense ties with Africa
Rosoboronexport, Russia’s sole state intermediary agency for the trade of defense-related products, recently revealed that it has spent approximately $20 billion in the African continent.
According to Rosoboronexport, this sum was distributed among 150 contracts with several African nations.
In a celebratory Africa Day statement, the organization’s CEO, Aleksandr Mikheev, mentioned that Rosoboronexport established agreements from the Russia-Africa Summit.
By offering specialized defense equipment for marine patrol, coastal protection, and regional security, the defense industry is increasing military-technical collaboration with its African counterparts.
Rosoboronexport now has agreements for military-technical cooperation with 46 African nations.
The Russian defense exporter claims that through these relationships, it would provide African governments with bespoke defense solutions to boost security and coastline protection, as well as direct military equipment supply.
Other areas of focus include infrastructure support, potential for licensed and joint manufacturing, collaboration in research and development (R&D), and modernization, servicing, and maintenance of current defense equipment.
