MINSK, 14 August (BelTA) – A computer-assisted command post exercise of the Commonwealth of Independent States air defense system is taking place in Minsk on 14-16 August, BelTA learned from Chief of the Air Force and Air Defense Command of the Armed Forces of Belarus Igor Golub after the session of the Air Defense Coordinating Committee under the CIS Defense Ministers Council on 14 August.
The exercise has been arranged in order to improve the Belarusian-Russian joint air defense system, improve the combat effectiveness of the system in the Eastern Europe collective security region, said Igor Golub.
According to Albert Druzhinin, Director of the Department for Cooperation in Security, Counteraction of New Challenges and Threats of the CIS Executive Committee, security remains a priority avenue of integration development in the Commonwealth of Independent States. An integral approach to handling security tasks is practiced in the CIS thanks to joint efforts. Since the international situation is getting more complicated all the time, since NATO's potential and military activities near the CIS borders are on the rise, implementing the available potential of defensive cooperation of the CIS states is perceived as a key to reducing the influence of negative factors and ensuring the reliable defensive capability and safe development of the CIS states.
Military cooperation of the CIS member states is part and parcel of the safe development of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Cooperation in air defense is one of the most important aspects of military cooperation. The Air Defense Coordinating Committee under the CIS Defense Ministers Council plays the key role in these matters, noted Belarusian Deputy Defense Minister Sergei Potapenko. The committee's work has helped develop the relevant legal base, which allows implementing joint and national interests of the CIS member states.
Delegations of the defense ministries of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, representatives of the CIS Executive Committee, the Secretariat of the CIS Defense Ministers Council took part in the session of the Air Defense Coordinating Committee under the CIS Defense Ministers Council in Minsk on 14 August.
