DUSHANBE, April 7, 2016, Asia-Plus – Central Asia is becoming a greater focus for Russian air defense priorities.
RIA Novosti
reports Russian plan to create unified regional air defense systems with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
“Agreements on creation of unified regional air defense systems with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have already been developed and they are currently at the stage of coordination, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant-General Pavel Kurachenko, was quoted as saying.
Kurachenko noted that Russia signed a similar agreement with Kazakhstan in 2013.
“Besides, Russia and Armenia signed an agreement on creation of a united regional air defense system in the Caucasus on December 23, 2015,” Kurachenko added.
We will recall that Kurachenko noted during the CIS defense ministers’ meeting in Dushanbe in April 2015 that tight integration of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ air defense forces in the region is an important direction in uniting the CIS’s air defense systems. “The priority in the development [of the unified air defense systems] is a further integration in the region, that is the creation of unified or united regional air defense systems in the eastern European, Central Asian, and Caucasus regions for collective security,” Kurachenko said in Dushanbe.
An integrated air defense network was set up by 10 CIS-member countries in 1995 and currently comprises air defense units and elements from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
The main purpose of the network is to ensure the protection of member country airspace, as well as early warning of missile attacks and coordination of joint efforts to neutralize potential air threats.
