Russian defence minister due in Tajikistan for CIS exercises

Avesta web site
2 Apr 05

Dushanbe, 2 April: Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov will observe
the final phase of the Rubezh-2005 joint command and staff exercises
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO; members are
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia]
planned at the Eshak Maydon firing range in Tajikistan’s [southern]
Khatlon Region on 6 April, the head of the Tajik Foreign Ministry
information department, Igor Sattorov, has told Avesta.

He said the Russian defence minister would arrive in Dushanbe on 5
April. Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov is scheduled to receive the
Russian defence minister.

The CSTO Rubezh-2005 exercises, which will be held in three phases,
started in Dushanbe this morning at a base of the Tajik Defence
Ministry’s Military Institute.

The main purpose of the exercises is to approve the main provisions
and recommendations to adopt and implement joint decisions on using
the forces and means of the collective security of the CSTO member
states; and to check the accuracy of operational and tactical
calculations on deployment of the forces and means of the collective
security system, and on the amount of military and technical
assistance to be provided to Tajikistan and the period for which this
is provided.