Russia has proposed to set up a service centre for Russian-made helicopters in Sri Lanka, a deputy chief of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation told Sputnik on Friday.

 "We’ve submitted our proposals to equip a helicopter maintenance centre and provide spare parts for armoured hardware to the Sri Lankan side," the agency’s Mikhail Petukhov said at the LIMA 2017 military show in Malaysia.

 Sri Lanka has 12 Mi-8/17 military transport helicopters, six Mi-24P attack helicopters, 36 BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and around 50 BTR-80 amphibious armoured personnel carriers.