Russia, Tajikistan decide to revive relations between their defense companies
MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax) - Russia and Tajikistan have agreed to integrate their defense-industrial enterprises, said Nikolai Bordyuzha, Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
The agreement was reached at Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin's meeting with Tajikistan's Minister of Industry, and new Technologies Shavkat Bobozoda and Tajik defense executives in Dushanbe on Friday.
"The meeting will provide a serious and potent boost to restoring the economic ties, which regrettably, were lost in the 1990s. I think this is one of the positive results of today's session," Bordyuzha said at a press conference after the 14th session of the CSTO inter-state commission for military-economic cooperation (ICMEC) in Dushanbe.
For his part, Rogozin told reporters that Russia is keen on cooperation between enterprises in the CSTO member states.
"We are very keen on matters relating to the economic potential of specific OSCE member states, the cooperation among industrial enterprises, participation in the joint cooperation by enterprises which are not immediately involved in the military economy, but are important for the CSTO members' national economies," the deputy prime minister said.
This is because the importance of the commission in charge of the military economy has risen sharply, he said.
"The military equipment used by the CSTO members' armed forces requires constant maintenance, improvements and further upgrade. The scope of the commission's work goes beyond merely technical issues, it focuses not on military-technical issues but military-economic issues ones," said Rogozin, who co-chairs the ICMEC.
This is why attendees of the ICMEC's 14th session met with the executives and industrialists of Tajikistan. "We are keen on people to feel part of this big process of forming steady, stable military-economic relations between the nations - allies in the CSTO," the deputy prime minister said.
The session attendees approved a draft resolution by the CSTO heads of government "On the mechanism of practical realization of the cooperation in joint manufacturing of military products by enterprises and organizations named in the 'List of enterprises and organizations, whose specialization it is expedient to preserve for military-economic cooperation of the CSTO member states'."
The document describes the procedure for making decisions on participation in joint projects to design and manufacture military equipment and weapons and for preserving the specialization of the enterprises and organizations on the List. The passage of the document will help preserve and further improve the existing cooperation between defense companies in the CSTO member states in designing and manufacturing military products.
The ICMEC decided to hold its next meeting in Kyrgyzstan, in May 2017.
