Russia said Thursday it was not going to start a new arms race, but would keep its nuclear weapons and aerospace defense constantly ready for action.

President Vladimir Putin told a government meeting on the country's armament program "... no one should doubt the reliability and efficiency of our nuclear potential, as well as the aerospace defense".

He said nuclear weapons remained the "most important guarantee" of Russia's sovereignty and integrity, adding they still played a key role in keeping global and regional balance and stability.

Meanwhile, Putin also highlighted the importance of the development of the aerospace forces.

"It must be kept in constant combat readiness, taking into account the plans of a potential enemy to develop the first-strike means," Putin said, without spelling out the name of the "potential enemy".

The government should allocate considerable funds for the upgrading of the aerospace and the nuclear forces, he said.

Russia plans to upgrade up to 85 percent of its strategic nuclear weapons and up to 70 percent of aerospace defense weapons by 2020. The government has earmarked 20 trillion rubles (about 600 billion US dollars) for the massive re-armament program until 2020.