Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow values ​​its ties with countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa and is ready to provide modern weapons to its allies, Reuters reported.

Vladimir Putin gave a speech at an arms exhibition outside Moscow to boast about Russia’s advanced weapons capabilities and announce his willingness to share technology with like-minded countries.

“We are ready to provide our allies with the most modern types of weapons – from small arms to armored vehicles and artillery to combat aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles,” Putin said at the opening ceremony of the Army-2022 forum near Moscow.

“Almost all of them have been used repeatedly in real combat operations,” the Kremlin leader said.

Vladimir Putin made the speech nearly six months after Russia launched a war in Ukraine, where Moscow has suffered repeated setbacks and heavy casualties.

Western military analysts say the low performance of Russian troops and weapons could make arms exports less attractive to potential buyers such as India, which has relied heavily on its technology in the past.

Putin wants to expand relations with North Korea

The Russian president’s speech came shortly after Putin said Russia and North Korea would expand bilateral relations, Pyongyang’s KCNA news agency reported on Monday, citing The Guardian.

Putin told Kim Jong-un that the two countries would “jointly expand comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations,” the quoted source said.

In a letter to Kim on the occasion of North Korea’s Liberation Day, Putin said that closer ties would be in the interests of both countries and help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region.

In turn, Kim Jong-un sent a letter to Putin in which he mentioned the Russian-Korean friendship that arose in the Second World War with the victory over Japan.

Since then, “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two states have reached a new level in the joint fight against threats and challenges from the enemy’s armed forces, the letter also states.

KCNA did not name “hostile forces,” but the wording likely refers to the US and its allies.