Image credit: eccis.org
MINSK, 2 October (BelTA) – A session of the coordinating committee for air defense affairs under the Defense Ministers Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States took place in the city of Izhevsk, Russia, the press service of the CIS Executive Committee told BelTA.
Representatives of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Secretariat of the CIS Defense Ministers Council, military industry enterprises of the Commonwealth countries, and basic organizations of the CIS member states in the field of air defense research and military personnel training participated in the work of the coordinating committee.
The CIS Executive Committee was represented at the session by Yevgeny Klemez, Director of the Department for Security Cooperation. In his speech at the meeting he noted that for the Commonwealth states, which share common historical and technological roots, the preservation and development of joint air defense has become one of the most successful forms of practical cooperation. The CIS joint air defense system is an example of a genuinely functioning multilateral military mechanism in the post-Soviet space, performing several functions at once: strengthening the security of the states, maintaining the military technology cooperation. “Its significance goes beyond military interaction: it is about building trust, responding jointly to new challenges and threats, and preserving the common security architecture in Eurasia,” he stressed.
According to Yevgeny Klemez, modern military conflicts convincingly demonstrate that control over air space and outer space is becoming a key condition for ensuring national and collective security. The use of high-precision weapons, hypersonic systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and radio-electronic warfare systems is radically changing the nature of armed conflict.
The CIS joint air defense system develops according to an “umbrella agreement” model, which is supplemented by bilateral agreements on setting up regional air defense systems. In the future these regional systems will become parts of a larger architecture covering the entire CIS airspace. “The implementation of the main directions and stages of building the aerospace defense of the CIS states should ensure an increase in the efficiency of the Commonwealth’s air defense, the commissioning of modern means and systems of warfare, the parrying of military threats from air space and outer space, and the accomplishment of joint aerospace defense tasks,” the director of the department said.
The key body of the joint air defense system is the coordinating committee on air defense affairs under the CIS Defense Ministers Council, which develops unified decisions and monitors their implementation. According to Yevgeny Klemez, the work of the coordinating committee to develop the joint air defense system of the Commonwealth states is appreciated by the highest authorities of the CIS and represents a subject of their constant attention.
He also recalled that the upcoming session of the CIS Heads of State Council due in Dushanbe on 10 October is supposed to approve a concept of military cooperation till 2030.
During the session the main focus was on improving the mechanisms for interaction between the troops (forces) of the joint air defense system, on developing the communications system, and priority areas of the coordinating committee’s work till 2030 were defined.
Participants of the meeting approved proposals on carrying out joint operational and combat training events, approved the concept of an international science to practice conference on the experience of organizing and operating military air defense in modern combat conditions, and looked into a number of financial matters.
Once the session of the coordinating committee was over, the heads of the delegations of the armed forces of the CIS member states had a meeting.
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