ARMS TRADE DISCOUNTS BEGIN FOR CIS SECURITY TREATY STATES

Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow
7 Jul 04

Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, 7 July: Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) member-states which have ratified corresponding
intergovernmental agreements and protocols are entitled to deliver and
procure arms and materiel within the CSTO framework on preferential
terms.

“A decree regulating prices and charges on arms and materiel,
delivered within the CSTO framework on preferential terms, was issued
about a month ago, and we have already started certain practical work
in compliance with this decree,” CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay
Bordyuzha told Interfax-Military News Agency at the Nizhniy Tagil arms
show today.

Quoting Russian media outlets, he said that two Il-76 Candid military
transports had recently been delivered to Armenia. The aircraft have
been sold on preferential terms.

(Passage omitted)

According to Bordyuzha, not all CSTO member-states have ratified the
necessary documents, which considerably hinders arms deliveries on
preferential terms. “Not all the states have ratified the agreement
proper, and the protocol on controlling arms to be delivered on
preferential terms. We have to be sure that such arms will not be
transferred to third parties in the future,” he said.

(Passage omitted)