MINSK, 18 January (BelTA) – Two new Union State programs in the defense industry will be launched in 2018, State Secretary of the Belarus-Russia Union State Grigory Rapota told the media ahead of a meeting with representatives of the Belarusian governmental customers of the programs in defense, security, law enforcement, military-technical cooperation and defense industry, BelTA has learned.
“This year we are launching two new Union State programs in the defense industry. They were approved at the end of 2017,” Grigory Rapota said. These are the programs “Improvement of military infrastructure planned for the joint use in the interests of the regional group of troops (forces) of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation” and “Improving the border security of the Union State for the period of 2017-2020”.
In his words, about RUB2.17 billion was allocated to implement Union State programs in defense, security, law enforcement, military-technical cooperation and defense industry in 2017. “Last year we implemented six Union State programs in these areas. Five of them will be continued this year. The sixth, Monitoring-SG program to develop necessary equipment to provide consumers from Russia and Belarus with space information received as a result of the Earth remote sensing, has already been completed," said the State Secretary of the Union State. He emphasized that the satellite data is in high demand in the forestry, meteorology, and many other areas.
The meeting will consider progress made in the implementation of the Union State programs in the areas of defense, security, law enforcement, military-technical cooperation and defense industry in 2017. The participants of the meeting will also discuss the drafting of concepts for the Union State new programs and events in the above-mentioned areas, and also the Belarusian-Russian cooperation in sci-tech and military-technical sectors. Taking part in the meeting are representatives of law enforcement agencies of Belarus, ministries of industry, economy, finance, and education, Belneftekhim Concern, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, and the Standing Committee of the Union State.