Thailand Offers Chickens for Russian ArmsCreated: 01.09.2004 14:19 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:38 MSK, 8 hours 34 minutes agoMosNewsThailand, its huge poultry industry stricken by bird flu, wants to pay for Russian weaponry with chickens, the Reuters news agency quoted the country’s prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as saying. Thaksin said he had ordered his ambassador in Moscow to offer Thai chicken for Russian weapons and that he would consult with military chiefs on what arms they wanted. “Our chicken exports have been hit by bird flu,” Thaksin told reporters on Tuesday. “When we can’t sell in our traditional markets, we need to penetrate new markets by bartering. We can’t leave all this chicken in Thailand.” Thailand, the world’s fourth biggest chicken exporter until the industry was ravaged by bird flu early this year, has never exported poultry to Russia. But with the European Union and Japan, its biggest customers, barring imports of Thai fresh and frozen chicken, it has been offering incentives like cheap credit to Asian countries willing to buy Thai poultry. Thaksin gave no hint on whether warplanes were on his Moscow shopping list, but Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported on Wednesday that Bangkok wanted to buy at least six Sukhoi Su-30s worth $200 million. It quoted a source close to Russia’s arms trade authority as saying Thailand, which has equipped its air force with U.S. fighters, had sent a defence delegation to Russia recently to Irkut, which has a licence to produce the Su-30. Another company making Su-30s is state-owned Sukhoi Corporation, Russia’s top arms exporter, which forecasts 2004 sales at $1.5 billion and plans to export 40 fighters. Su-30s, together with MiGs, form the backbone of Russia’s arms trade and go mainly to Southeast Asia, where Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia have long been buyers. Boosting defence exports is part of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to revive the arms sector, but sales are still a tiny fraction of what they were in Soviet times. Last year’s arms sales hit a post-Soviet record of $5.4 billion, mainly on strong demand from Southeast Asia. Fighter jet sales make up about two-thirds of Russia’s arms exports.
E que tal com vinho ? Os russos sempre adoraram o vinho da ilha do Pico e certamente não desdenham os outros vinhos que nós produzimos !
