A regular meeting of the Coordination Committee on Air Defense under the CIS Defense Ministers Council took place on April 15 in Tashkent.
The meeting of the Coordination Committee was attended by delegations from:
- defense ministries of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan;
- Secretariat of the Defense Ministers Council;
- Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of Russia;
- defense industry enterprises of Commonwealth countries;
- higher military educational institutions of the defense ministries of Russia and Uzbekistan;
- CIS basic organizations in the field of air defense research and military personnel training.
Representing the Commonwealth of Independent States Executive Committee at the meeting was Director of the Department for Cooperation in the Security Sphere Evgeny Klemez.
Addressing the meeting, he noted that for CIS countries, preserving and developing joint air defense had become one of the most successful forms of practical cooperation. The CIS Joint Air Defense System is an example of a truly functioning multilateral military mechanism on the Commonwealth's territory, performing several functions simultaneously: strengthening security and maintaining military-technical cooperation. Its significance extends beyond military interaction. It concerns building trust, jointly responding to new challenges and threats, and preserving the common security architecture in Eurasia.
Evgeny Klemez recalled that at the summit in October last year, the Military Cooperation Concept of Commonwealth Member States until 2030 was approved. It clarifies the goals and key tasks of the current stage of military cooperation among CIS states, outlines ways to enhance its effectiveness, and defines prospects for multilateral military cooperation in the interests of ensuring the national security of the Commonwealth states.
“A promising area of cooperation between the Commonwealth states within the framework of the Concept’s implementation is the further development of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotic systems capable of conducting combat operations with a high degree of effectiveness without human intervention. Their creation and implementation are directly linked to the development of microprocessor-based computing technology, control systems, navigation, and information transmission,” noted Evgeny Klemez.
During the meeting, representatives of defense ministries discussed the activities of sectoral higher education institutions in improving the training of military personnel for air defense forces and air forces, taking into account modern combat experience, summarized the activities of the Coordination Committee for 2025 and the training events held, considered a number of financial issues.
Following the meeting, contacts of the heads of military delegations took place, where discussions focused on operational and combat training activities, military-technical cooperation, joint air defense combat duty, and the practical implementation of agreements on the creation of unified (joint) regional air defense systems.
For reference:
The CIS Joint Air Defense System was established on the basis of an agreement signed by ten Commonwealth countries on February 10, 1995, in Almaty, and is one of the most sought-after and effective systems of multilateral military cooperation in the post-Soviet space.
Main goals of the System:
- reliable protection of member states’ air borders;
- warning of the threat/onset of an aerospace attack;
- protection of critical facilities of member states from air and space strikes.
Priority tasks of the System:
- joint control over the use of airspace by member states;
- notification of member states about the aerospace situation;
- coordinated actions to repel an aerospace attack.