On Thursday October 12, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received defense ministers of the CIS member nations who arrived in the Tajik capital for participation in a meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, Tajik leader expressed satisfaction with the results of a 25-year work of the CIS Council of Defense Minister.
The meeting reportedly focused on the issues related to expansion of military and technical cooperation between the CIS member nations in the framework of implementation of the CIS Concept for Military and Technical Cooperation designed for the period till 2020 and the Five-Year Program for Cooperation between CIS Member Countries on Strengthening Security on External Borders designed for 2016-2020.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the CIS Council of Defense that is going on in Dushanbe today is expected to discuss more than twenty issues.
Representative of Tajikistan will inform the meeting participants about the current situation along Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan and its influence on the regional security.
Established on December 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization. It now consists of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Georgia pulled out of the organization in 2009.
In 1992, the CIS Charter establishes the Council of Ministers of Defense, which is vested with the task of coordinating military cooperation of the CIS member states. To this end, the Council develops conceptual approaches to the questions of military and defense policy of the CIS member states; develops proposals aimed to prevent armed conflicts on the territory of the member states or with their participation; gives expert opinions on draft treaties and agreements related to the questions of defense and military developments; issues related suggestions and proposals to the attention of the CIS Council of the Heads of State. Also important is the Council’s work on approximation of the legal acts in the area of defense and military development.
