Rus training centre in Kyrgyzstan to be open for CSTO countries

CHOLPON-ATA, August 1 (Itar-Tass) - A training centre for Russian and
Kyrgyzstani servicemen that will be set up in Kyrgyzstan in line with a
memorandum the two countries' Presidents signed Saturday will be open for
all the member-states of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here Saturday.
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev reached agreement on
building up Russia's military presence in the southern areas of
Kyrgyzstan, in the first place, Lavrov said.
"All the problems related to the geographic parameters of Russian
troops presence and financial aspects will be discussed in the course of
the talks that have begun," he said. "In whatever situation, the two sides
are ready to act along the principles that proved to be fruitful back at
the talks on the opening of Russia's airbase in Kant."
"The strength of manpower will be determined by defence specialists in
the light of the needs for ensuring security in this region," Lavrov said.
When a reporter asked his opinion of the CSTO summit in Kyrgyzstan,
Lavrov said all the issues crucial for strengthening coordination between
the countries had been discussed and the Presidents had expressed the hope
that the exercises of the CSTO rapid reaction forces would take place this
fall, as scheduled.
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Saturday
signed a memorandum "on further development and improvement of the
bilateral legislative basis regulating the presence of Russian military
units on the territory of Kyrgyzstan and on deployment of a supplementary
Russian military contingent there."
The size of the supplementary contingent will be up to a battalion.
Also, Russia will open a centre for combat training of Russian and
Kyrgyzstani servicemen.
The memorandum says, among other things, the two countries find it
reasonable "to draft before November 1, 2009 a Russian-Kyrgyzstani
agreement on the status of and terms for deployment of a combined Russian
military base on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
The document says the agreement will list the Russian defence
installations on this country's territory, including the airbase in the
city of Kant.
The new agreement will be effective for 49 years and will also contain
a provision for an automatic prolongation every 25 years.
The document will specify, above all, the status of Russian servicemen
and members of their families. It will be equal to that of members of the
administrative and technical personnel of the Russian embassy in
Kyrgyzstan.
Also, the agreement should stipulate "the terms of rent of land areas
and other property, the conditions for ensuring ecological safety, and
reparation of damages arising from the operations of facilities of the
combined Russian military base."
The legislation regulating Kyrgyzstani-Russian relations in the field
of defence and technologies embraces the entire spectrum of relationship
from the supplies of defence products to the training of military cadres.
The two countries have 41 agreements in the field of security and its
maintenance.
Russia has three defence installations in Kyrgyzstan - the airbase in
Kant, the Marevo (Heat Haze) RF Navy's communication centre in the Chu
region and a centre for naval technologies testing on the mountainous Lake
Issyk-Kul.

-0-kud