The statement of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC of Russia) to the media about Slovakia's violation of its contractual obligations and international export control regulations
The statement of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC of Russia) to the media about Slovakia's violation of its contractual obligations and international export control regulations
Commenting on the publication of the Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic on transfer of the first batch of MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine, FSMTC of Russia stated that Slovakia has grossly violated the international obligations on
re-export of Russian origin arms which are stated in Article 6 of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of
the Slovak Republic on Military-Technical Cooperation dated April 29, 1997: «neither Contracting Party shall, without the written consent of the other Contracting Party, sell or transfer to the third countries arms and military equipment, technical documentation for their production, information and materials received or acquired as a result of bilateral military-technical cooperation...»
At the same time, Ja. Nad’, the Minister of Defense of the Slovak Republic, reported that «such document was not found in the archive of the Ministry
[of Defense of the Slovak Republic]».
In our opinion, such results of the «investigation» of the Slovak Party may provide evidence of an attempt made by Ja. Nad’ to mislead the global community.
In this regard, we are ready to assist the Slovak Party by providing it with
a copy of the original of the relevant intergovernmental document stored in
the archives of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, we declare that the supply of MiG-29 fighters to
the Slovak Republic was carried out on the basis of the contract signed with
the Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic on July 8, 1993. Article 14.6 of this contract fixes the provision that «the customer shall neither sell nor transfer, formally or in fact, without the consent of the supplier, the supplied special property and technical documentation or the information about them to the other countries, nor permit the third country or any private or legal persons, except officials or the specialists from the country of the customer, to use this special property and special documentation».
Thus, we are speaking not only about the violation by Bratislava of
the relevant Intergovernmental Agreement, but also of the contractual obligations assumed.
Moreover, in 2009, the Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic signed a contract with JSC «RAC «MiG» for subscription maintenance of MiG-29 aircraft of the Slovak Air Force.
All the time, the Russian Party has been steadily fulfilling its obligations
to maintain the specified aircraft in state of combat readiness.
However, last year, the Slovak Party announced the termination of this Agreement. At the same time, the issues of return to the Russian Party of expensive equipment imported for aircraft maintenance as part of the fulfillment of contractual obligations, as well as payment for services already rendered remained unresolved.
Despite the repeated offers by FSTMC of Russia and Russian contractors to settle the current situation in a civilized manner, the Ministry of Defence of
the Slovak Republic evades negotiations and resolving these issues. The equipment delivered under the conditions of temporary importation continues to be illegally kept by the Slovak Party and can be transferred to Ukraine.
According to our assessment, the above-mentioned arguments indisputably indicate violation by the Slovak Party of not only its contractual obligations, but also the international export control regulations.
