Russia intends to continue to develop a unified air defense system with its allies
At a meeting with members of the government of the Russian Federation on the evening of November 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced another contribution to the "formation of a unified, common, unified air defense system of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries," with the addition: "We have already done a lot of work in this regard."
We are talking about the deployment of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) in Tajikistan. Such a measure was approved by President Emomali Rahmon during his two-day official visit to Russia. "We have already delivered two divisions of our S-300 air defense systems to Tajikistan, these are eight launchers," Putin said.
Addressing the Russian ministers participating in the November 22 meeting, Putin asked them to do everything possible to "continue and complete this work on the CSTO as a whole," for which the Russian government "must issue an appropriate order by the end of the year – this is a technical issue, but I ask you not to lose sight of it and bring it to an end." According to Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu covered this topic in detail in his report the day before (however, the details did not get into the open press. – "HBO").
During the conversation between Putin and Rahmon in the Kremlin, it was stated that the relations between our countries are of the nature of alliance and strategic partnership. They are based on the treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, which entered into force on November 17, 1993. There was an increase in mutual trade turnover to $ 1.5 billion, and settlements in national currencies increased to 82%. More than a million Tajiks work in Russia and, according to Putin, "make a great contribution to the development of the Russian economy."
Increased attention was paid to the topic of bilateral cooperation in the development of oil and gas fields and the development of mineral deposits. Their number in Tajikistan is about 800. Among the actively developing projects is the search and development of uranium and rare earth metal springs. Among them, lithium stands out, which, as is known, is increasingly used in ultra-large capacity batteries, including those on submarines.
The cooperation on the issues of joint reclamation of the territories of Tajikistan, where uranium production was located in the past, was positively assessed. Rosatom is the main partner of the Tajik side here.
The Corporation has recently completed a project to rehabilitate an industrial uranium processing site. According to Rahmon, Rosatom remains the Tajik side's "main partner" in this area.
At the meetings in Moscow, Putin and Rahmon paid special attention to the topic of further development of cooperation in the nuclear field.
The interlocutors also discussed in detail the issues of cooperation within the framework of the Union of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the United Nations. The issue of security in Central Asia was touched upon in relation to issues that arise in Afghanistan. "We agreed to further deepen defense, military-technical and anti–terrorist, anti-drug cooperation," Putin said. "In general, we will continue to make efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Central Asian region, for which we intend to continue to actively use the capabilities of the 201st Russian military base stationed in the republic."
Rahmon said he considers his official visit to Moscow "as an important step towards further expanding the strategic partnership and alliance of our countries" and bringing bilateral cooperation to a "qualitatively higher level." He noted the steady dynamics of the development of bilateral ties and spoke in favor of "increasing our cooperation ... within the framework of international and regional associations," including the CSTO.
After the conclusion of the Russian-Tajik talks in Moscow, Putin and Rahmon went to Minsk to participate in a session of the CSTO Collective Security Council. At the end of the negotiations in a narrow circle (the presidents of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), an expanded plenary session was held on November 23. Opening the event, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that it actually ends the period of the presidency of the Republic of Belarus with the transfer of this role to Kazakhstan in 2024.
For his part, Vladimir Putin noted that contacts between the CSTO and "our natural partners" in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization had developed over the past year.
Over the past period, the attention of the CSTO participants has been paid to joint efforts to improve the collective rapid deployment and rapid response forces, aviation and peacekeeping forces. Among them are the maneuvers "Interaction", "Search" and "Echelon" in Belarus, as well as the peacekeeping exercises "Indestructible Brotherhood" in Kyrgyzstan.
Through the special services and law enforcement agencies, the operation "Mercenary" continued, aimed at suppressing the recruitment and blocking the channels of departure of citizens of the CSTO member states to participate in the activities of international terrorist groups.
Among the events of the past year within the framework of the CSTO, the beginning of the work of the Coordinating Council for Biological Safety, dealing with the prevention of threats related to the development and use of biological weapons, providing radiation, chemical and medical protection, was noted. At the initiative of the Russian Federation, an Interstate Commission on Military-Economic Cooperation has been established, which contributes to the expansion of interaction between the organization's member states.
