RUSSIAN MILITARY CHIEF URGES MORE CONTACTS BETWEEN CIS COUNTRIES’ TOP BRASS

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
18 May 06

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces Yuriy
Baluyevskiy has called on his Collective Security Treaty Organization
[CSTO] counterparts to improve cooperation between the general and
main staffs of the member states’ armed forces, the ITAR-TASS news
agency reported at 0716 gmt on 18 May. In an opening speech at the
meeting of the chiefs of the CSTO main and general staffs, which
was held on 18 May in Moscow, Baluyevskiy said the efficiency of the
CSTO’s military component relies extensively on practical interaction
between the member nations’ armed forces.

“We know that not everybody is happy with [the current state of] this
interaction. It has weakened for a number of reasons. This is how
our performance was appraised at a meeting of the Council of Defence
Ministers of the CIS and the CSTO member states,” Baluyevskiy said.

The member states of the CSTO are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. ITAR-TASS reports that Belarus
was not represented at the meeting in Moscow.