A contract to develop the Advanced Heavy Lift (AHL) helicopter should be signed between China's Avicopter and Russia's Rostec in mid-2016 instead of end-2015, Dmitry Shugaev, Deputy CEO of Rostec has said.

"We can say that both sides have a desire to come together and finalize their contractual obligations as well as sign an intergovernmental agreement by the middle of next year. This is the normal timeframe for such a volume of work,” he said. “It will not happen by the end of this year due to objective circumstances,” Shugaev was quoted as saying in a statement posted on Rostec's website.

According to Alexei Grishin, Rostec’s top representative in China, the two sides came to the conclusion that the most efficient and effective approach would be to sign sub-contracts at the same time as the primary one for the development of the future helicopter’s primary systems and components.

"This, in turn, necessitates a large amount of technical consultations between experts. However, it will also allow us to more accurately estimate the volume of work, its costs, and the level of involvement of each party,” said Alexey Grishin, according to TASS.

He also said that Russia and China are considering the possibility of creating a joint production of the Mi-34 Russian light helicopter in China.

"We are currently at the moment of truth, and we really need to promote our products.

This is not just in regard to the supply of finished products, but a question of whether we will do something together.