WASHINGTON, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Pentagon has said in an annual report that China buys about 95% of its new weapons from Russia.
The 2006 Annual Report on the military power of the People's Republic of China said Russia remained the leading supplier of weapons to China and continued to cooperate with the country on a variety of technical and logistics issues, which allowed China to maintain and modernize its large military potential.
According to Pentagon analysts, China has bought Su-27 Flanker fighters and Su-30 Flanker interceptors, AA-12 Adder medium-range air-to-air missiles, SA-10 Grumble, SA-15 Gauntlet and SA-20 Triumf surface-to-air missiles, 3M-54E (SS-N-27B) anti-ship cruise missiles, Kilo-class diesel submarines, Sovremennyi-class destroyers, Il-76 Candid transport planes and Il-78 Midas in-flight refueling tankers.
The report said China had recently increased its efforts aimed at forcing Russia to sell the most advanced weaponry to the country, although Russia was historically cautious about the transfer of modern military technologies to its Asian neighbor.
The Pentagon said in 2000-2005 China had concluded a series of contracts on military hardware supplies with Russia worth $13 billion, and had already received $11-bln worth of weaponry under these deals.
