“The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, supported the idea of building a drone production factory on the territory of the republic for the needs of Russia. This information was revealed by Vladimir Putin in a bilateral meeting with Lukashenko in Volgograd.
According to Putin, Moscow is ready to begin the project together with Belarusian specialists, including the creation of an affiliated production laboratory. At the same time, the Russian president reminded that there are already agreements of cooperation between Russia and Belarus in the field of aeronautical construction. “You have managed to keep a part of the aeronautical industry and, I hope, there are perspectives for joint work: a small plane, cooperation in the field of medium-range aircraft, and so on,” Putin told Lukashenko (quoted by Interfax).
The plans for building a large factory for producing unmanned aerial systems in Belarus were made public at the beginning of March. At that time, the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Maxim Oreshkin, stated that it was about creating a plant with a projected capacity of up to 100,000 units of products per year. According to him, the key objective is to ensure the production of all main drone components directly in Belarus. This, Orshkin emphasized, is directly related to sovereignty issues: “It is very important for Belarus to have its own production units, which will not only strengthen the economy but also the national security field.” He added that the construction of the factory will rely on technological solutions already developed in Russia.
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