MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin urged aerospace industry leaders on Friday to press on with efforts to develop booster rocket engines for space launch vehicles and build on Russia’s longstanding reputation as a leader in space technology.

Putin, who has spent the past week in China and the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, flew to the southern Russian city of Samara, where he met industry specialists and toured the Kuznetsov design bureau aircraft engine manufacturing plant.

Quoted by Russian news agencies, Putin said Russia remained a leading force in the development of the aerospace industry.

“It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets,” the agencies quoted Putin as saying late on Friday.

“And in doing so, we must not only meet our own current and future needs but also move actively on world markets and be successful competitors.”

Putin noted Russian success in developing innovations in terms of producing engines, particularly in the energy sector, despite the imposition of sanctions by Western countries linked to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“In conditions of restrictions from sanctions, we succeeded in a short period of time in developing a series of innovative engines for energy,” Putin was quoted as saying. “These are being actively used, including in terms of gas transport infrastructure.”

Putin called it “an extremely important theme,” particularly for the development of Russian gas exports, including the planned Power of Siberia 2 pipeline under discussion in China this week to bring Russian gas to China.

Putin praised the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline as beneficial to both sides. Russia proposed the route years ago, but the plan has gained urgency as it looks to Beijing as a customer to replace Europe, which is trying to reduce Russian energy supplies since the Russian invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Putin also pointed to the development of the PD-26 aircraft engine, saying it would allow for the development of military transports and wide-bodied passenger planes.

“The development of this project will allow for the modernization not only of military transport aircraft, but also opens up prospects for construction of a new generation of wide-bodied civil planes,” he was quoted as saying.