ISLAMABAD: Russia said on Tuesday that it was willing to sell MI-35 helicopters to Pakistan.

“Pakistan has expressed its interest in buying MI-35 helicopters and we have shown our willingness to provide them,” Ambassador of the Russian Federation Alexey Dedov told a news conference at the embassy.

The deal, however, had not been finalised yet, he added.

There has lately been significant improvement in relations and the two countries have made a lot of progress in defence cooperation.

Pakistan’s request for MI-35 helicopters has been on the table since 2009, but Russia had kept the issue pending because of the Indian factor.

India had long been Russia’s ‘exclusive military technical cooperation partner’. However, Moscow has reportedly downgraded that status to ‘preferred partner’ after India diversified its defence procurements and increasingly began relying on Western sources for meeting its hardware requirements. Russia has, meanwhile, reviewed its policy of selling military equipment to Pakistan.

Ambassador Dedov, however, maintained that there was no ban on selling defence equipment to Pakistan.

MI-35s are multi-purpose military transport helicopters which can be used for combat missions.

The Pakistan government has been saying that it genuinely needed these helicopters for counter-terrorism operations.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2014