MOSCOW: Russia sold around $15 billion worth of weapons in 2017,maintaining a similar level of sales to the previous year, the country´sagency responsible for military exports Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday.

“In 2017 Rosoboronexport signed contracts worth approximately $15 billionwith customers in 53 countries,” the agency´s CEO Alexander Mikheev said ina statement.

He added that the results “allow Russia to maintain its dominant positionin the world arms market”.

According to Stockholm´s independent institute researching arms control,Sipri, the United States topped the world ranking of arms exporters between2012 and 2016, with 33% of the market, followed by Russia (23%), China(6.2%) and France (6%).

A long-time supplier to India and China, Moscow has also provided equipmentto the Syrian regime in recent years, which the Kremlin steadfastlysupports.

“Despite unprecedented pressure from a number of Western countries and theunfair methods of competition they are using, we have managed to enter newmarkets,” Mikheev said in the statement.

He listed “a certain number of new clients in the Asia Pacific region andin the Middle East” without giving specific details.

Last week, the US State Department said some governments were beginning torenounce arms deals with Russia following a law Congress passed last summerthat banned all dealings with 39 Russian arms companies.

In 2016, Russia made more than $15 billion in arms shipments to 52countries. – AFP