Russian defence minister arrives in Kyrgyzstan to attend CIS defence ministers’ meeting

CHOLPON-ATA /Kyrgyzstan/, June 2. /TASS/. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday arrived in the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata, which will host a regular meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on June 3. "The meeting is expected to focus on issues of further development of military cooperation and joint drills of the CIS armed forces in 2016. IT is also planned to discuss measures to enhance combat capabilities of the unified system of CIS air defence," Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defence ministry’s press service chief, told journalists. He said the agenda would include about 20 issues of multilateral cooperation between defence ministries of the CIS countries. Taking part in the meeting will be delegations from defence ministries of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The Russian defence ministry hopes that this meeting "will be another joint step to improve the system of military cooperation within the CIS and develop mutually beneficial partner cooperation in the defence sector on the basis of due account of common, regional and national interests," Konashenkov said. Read more