BANGKOK - Thailand, with its huge poultry industry stricken by
bird flu, wants to pay for Russian weaponry with chickens, Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.
He said he had ordered his ambassador in Moscow to offer Thai
chicken for Russian weapons, and that he would consult military
chiefs on what arms they wanted.
'Our chicken exports have been hit by bird flu,' he 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.
Mr Thaksin gave no hint on whether warplanes were on his Moscow
shopping list, but Russia's Vedomosti business daily reported
yesterday that Bangkok wanted to buy at least six Sukhoi Su-30s
worth US$200 million (S$340 million).
It quoted a source close to Russia's arms trade authority as saying
Thailand, which has equipped its air force with American 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 has forecast sales for this year
at US$1.5 billion and plans to export 40 fighters. -- Reuters
Taken from Straits times
joining malaysia in offering palm oil for fighter jets..
lol..
