MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2019) Moscow believes that its cooperation with Riyadh in industry and aircraft construction has serious prospects, and is also interested in selling its passenger jets to Saudi Arabia, the Russian energy minister and a co-chair of the Russian-Saudi intergovernmental commission, Alexander Novak, said on Monday.
"We see great prospects [for cooperation with Saudi Arabia] in industry and aircraft construction. We are ready to offer the Saudi side [Sukhoi Superjet 100] SSJ100 jets and MC-21 mid-range airliners and develop cooperation to create a supersonic passenger aircraft," Novak said at the commission's meeting.
He added that, given its "financial resources and high political weight in the region," Saudi Arabia was a promising partner for Moscow, while the latter was also interested in it as a new market for Russian space services.
In May 2018, the manufacturers of MC-21 and SSJ100 jets, Russia's Irkut Corporation and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) respectively, signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA). The deal is meant to promote Russian civil aircraft in the middle East as well as in Northern and Central Africa.
The memorandum implies SAGIA's assistance in sales and leasing of these Russian aircraft, local certification of the MC-21 and SSJ100 jets, cooperation in after-sale services and, potentially, gradual localization of the aircraft production in Saudi Arabia.
In March 2019, SCAC President Alexander Rubtsov said that the corporation was planning to set up a technical support center for its SSJ100 jets in Saudi Arabia. He also noted "broad prospects" for the use of the planes on Saudi domestic flights.�
