CIS DEFENSE MINISTERS TO DISCUSS MILITARY COOPERATION IN BAKU
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 31 2006
BAKU, May 31 (RIA Novosti) – Defense ministers from the Commonwealth
of Independent States will discuss the scope of future military
cooperation at a meeting Wednesday in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
The 21 items on the meeting’s agenda include implementation of the
Concept for CIS military cooperation to 2010, the activities of CIS
Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone in the breakaway
Georgian region of Abkhazia, and a joint action plan for operative
training in the CIS armed forces for 2007.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov arrived in Baku on May 30 and
met with his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoliy Hrytsenko. A source in
the Russian delegation said Russia had prepared a draft agreement on
joint inspection of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet bases in Ukraine that
will be signed during the meeting.
The CIS, a loose association of former Soviet republics, comprises
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan discontinued
permanent membership on August 26, 2005 and is now an associate member.
The Armenian delegation has refused to attend the meeting in Baku,
citing security reasons in an ongoing dispute with Azerbaijan over
Nagorny-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that has a largely Armenian
population.