DUSHANBE, August 20, Asia-Plus — Tajik Defense Minister, Colonel-General Sherali Khairulloyev, is participating at the 27th session of the coordinating committee for aid-defense issues of the CIS council of defense ministers that opened at airfield Privolzhsky of Russia’s Astrakhan region today, Asia-Plus has learned at the Ministry o Defense (MoD).
The source at a MoD said that the session is considering more than 15 issues related to expansion of air-defense cooperation between the CIS member nations.
The session has brought together Air Force and Air-Defense commanders from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Besides, representatives from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russia’s war industry as well as members of military delegations of the CIS states are also taking part in the session’s work.
After the meeting, the CIS Air Force and Air-Defense commanders will observe an active stage of the joint air defense exercise, dubbed The Combat Commonwealth-2007, that will be held at the Ashuluk training ground in the Astrakhan region on August 22. The CIS defense minister will also observe the exercise at the Ashuluk training ground
The second stage of this joint air defense exercise was launched at the Ashuluk training ground on August 14.
The first stage of the Combat Commonwealth-2007 annual exercise was held in June at the Telemba training ground in East Siberia”s Chita Region and involved the Russian and Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense troops, as well as Russia”s Baltic Fleet.
The August exercise has included live firing conducted by S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) and S-125 (SA-3 Goa) air defense systems and a variety of simulated air missions performed by Su-24 Fencer, Su-25 Frogfoot, Su-27 Flanker and MiG-29 Fulcrum aircraft.
The third and fourth stages of the exercise will take place at Kazakh and Uzbek training grounds in August-September and involve Kazakh and Uzbek Air Force and Air Defense units.
Conducted annually, such exercises are part of efforts to build an integrated security system for CIS, a loose association of former Soviet republics.
Some Russian media say an integrated air defense network was set up by 10 CIS-member countries February 10, 1995, but so far exists only on paper.
