DUSHANBE, May 29, 2013, Asia-Plus – A group of experts from Latvia and Estonia have arrived in Tajikistan to inspect the Russian military base deployed here.
According to the base’s headquarters in Dushanbe, the inspection group arrived in Tajikistan on May 29 on a three-day visit.
“They are inspecting military activities in Tajikistan in accordance with the Vienna Document 2011 on Confidence and Security Building Measures,” an official source at the base’s headquarters in Dushanbe told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Vienna Document 2011 (VD11) is composed of politically binding confidence and security-building measures (CSBMs) designed to increase openness and transparency concerning military activities conducted inside the OSCE”s zone of application (ZOA), which includes the territory, surrounding sea areas, and air space of all European (Russia from the western border to the Ural Mountains) and Central Asian participating States. A variety of information exchanges, on-site inspections, evaluation visits, observation visits, and other military-to-military contacts take place according to VD11 provisions. In the case of the United States (and Canada), only military forces and activities inside the ZOA are impacted.
On May 29, the group of Estonian and Latvian inspectors, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Toomas Boltowsky, reportedly met with the base command. The base commander, Colonel Sergey Ryumshin, briefed them on separate aspects of activities of the Russian military base in Dushanbe, the source said.
The Russian military base was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad. A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are stationed at three military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe, Qurgon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe, and Kulob, about 200 kilometers southwest of the capital.
