Russia to honour missile contract with Cyprus - Primakov

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeniy Primakov said on Monday that Russia intended to honour a contract to supply Cyprus with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

"The S-300 systems will be delivered to Cyprus as provided for in the contract and within the time specified in it," Primakov said during his visit to Greece.

"The contract can be cancelled only for one reason - if the whole territory of Cyprus is demilitarized," he added.

Pointing out that the S-300 missiles were defensive weapons, Primakov said that Russia wanted the Cyprus issue to be resolved and was willing to do whatever it could to achieve that.

Referring to his talks with Greek Foreign Minister Theodhoros Pangalos, Primakov said that relations between Russia and Greece were developing well.

"We have identical or very close views on events at both regional and global levels," he said.

The two men discussed the situation in the Balkans, Greek-Turkish relations, Russian-Turkish relations and major international issues as well as bilateral relations, ITAR-TASS said.

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