A regular session of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers will take place in the Russian city of Anapa on June 5.
Tajik Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Sherali Mirzo, is expected to leave for Anapa to attend the session today.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), more than twenty issues have been tables to the session’s agenda.
The CIS defense ministers will discuss the current military and political situation in the world and its impact on security in the CIS nations, conceptual approaches to expansion of military collaboration between the CIS member nations until the period to 2025 and the experience of post-conflict regulation in Syria.
The will also discuss issues related to conducting joint military exercises for subunits of the CIS Unified Air Defense System, dubbed Combat Commonwealth 2019, and outlining the main directions of cooperation in using unmanned aviation and countering unmanned aerial vehicles (UAWs).
Besides, the CIS defense ministers will discuss training of personnel and joint events of the armed forces of the CIS member nations scheduled for 2020.
While in Anapa, Sherali Mirzo will also hold a number of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the CIS member nations, a source at a MoD told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Established in 1992, the Council of Ministers of Defense consists of representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It 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.
Established on December 8, 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.
Although Ukraine was one of the founding countries and ratified the Creation Agreement in December 1991, it now takes part in CIS “on selective basis.” On May 19, 2018, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree formally ending Ukraine's participation in CIS statutory bodies. Since September last year, Ukraine has had no representatives in the CIS Executive Committee building. Ukraine has stated that intends to review its participation in all CIS agreements, and only continue in those that are in its interests.
