Russia-NATO Council to confer on Afghan drugs, helicopter deal
TOMSK. Oct 16 (Interfax) - The Russian and NATO defense ministers will discuss the suppression of drug trafficking from Afghanistan and the delivery of Russian helicopters to that country at the upcoming session of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on October 23, Robert Pszczel, Director of the NATO Information Office in Moscow, told Interfax during his visit to Tomsk.
He said Afghanistan was a rather extensive subject and large projects were related to it, including the training of experts to deter drugs from being smuggled from Afghanistan and its neighbors into Russia and NATO countries.
The sides will also discuss the delivery of Russian helicopters to Afghanistan financed by NATO. Russia, including Novosibirsk instructors, is already training Afghan technicians, Pszczel said.
Military and military-technological projects and the scrapping of old munitions will also be on the agenda, he said.
The upcoming session will take a look into the future, the NATO officer stated. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu used to be in charge of the Emergency Situations Ministry and held joint exercises (with NATO) in that capacity, but that would be his first meeting with the NATO colleagues after his accession to his new position, Pszczel said.
