The heads of the General Staffs of the CIS countries on Friday signed a number of agreements aimed at increasing interaction between the armies of the states. In particular, they discussed the creation of a joint communications and automation system for the armed forces, as well as issues of their integration. Experts consider this step towards cooperation beneficial for Russia.
The chiefs of the General Staffs of the CIS countries held a meeting in Moscow, at which they signed a draft package of agreements aimed at developing military cooperation within the commonwealth, RIA Novosti reports, referring to Captain 1st Rank Mikhail Sevastyanov, representative of the secretariat of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers.
Delegations of the General Staffs of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine took part in the work.
"The documents provide for issues of interaction within the framework of military-technical cooperation to create a joint communications system and automation of the armed forces of the CIS member states," Sevastyanov said.
According to the representative of the secretariat, the heads of the General Staffs considered the documents, according to which a unified system for monitoring the radiation, chemical and biological situation in the countries is being created. The documents on the further development of cooperation in the field of improving the unified system of state radar identification "Password" and issues of engineering support for the activities of the armed forces of the CIS countries were also considered.
In addition, the heads of the General Staffs approved documents related to topographic and geodetic support - one of the types of combat support for troops, whose duties include assessing the terrain, navigating it, as well as resolving issues on the degree of effectiveness of the use of weapons and military equipment. The issues of interaction of hydrometeorological (meteorological) services of the armed forces of the CIS countries and the possibility of exchanging archival information were also considered.
"Among the listed documents - and control of the radiation, chemical and biological situation, and the system of state radar identification" Password ", and so on - it is impossible to highlight the main thing," - said to the newspaper VZGLYAD Vice-President of the College of Military Experts Alexander Vladimirov. He is confident that, together, the documents are a system that regulates combat support issues.
The expert recalled that in Soviet times, similar issues were resolved on the scale of the Soviet Union. “Each district, each republic contributed its share to the regulation of security. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this all ceased to exist, and with the collapse of our army, it also degraded,”complained Vladimirov. He noted that the armies of the CIS countries are currently at different levels, primarily in terms of material and structural support. “Of course, now we need to bring everything back into a single military organization of the CIS so that they can interact and understand each other and that everyone is responsible for their zone in matters of military support,” the expert is sure.
“For Russia, the issue of interaction with the armies of the CIS countries is very important: our troops will be able to operate in areas where others cannot. The troops will be sure that all anchoring points correspond perfectly to the maps, geodetic moments,”Vladimirov expressed his opinion. He noted that if the troops of the CIS countries act according to different cards, and not one by one, then "sooner or later people will not understand each other and may even suffer from this."
The question of whether the interaction of the armies of the CIS countries would lead to a complication of the situation with the North Atlantic Alliance caused Vladimirov to laugh, he said that the NATO bloc was not a decree of either Russia or any other country.
It should be noted that in addition to considering documents on the interaction of armies, members of the committee of chiefs of the General Staff of the CIS countries stated the need for integration in the construction of their national armed forces.
"All participants noted the need to build their national armies on integration principles within the framework of the commonwealth, without repeating each other's mistakes," said Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Army General Nikolai Makarov, and stressed that an active reform of the armed forces of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus is underway. In the process of reforming, these countries can avoid the mistakes made by their predecessors in the CIS space.
The general emphasized that at present it is impossible for one state to create new types of weapons and equipment. Therefore, integration is also necessary in this matter. Answering the question about what is hindering this process, Makarov said: “The same processes interfere with the economy: for a long time the countries built their armed forces independently, without integration. Now we need to move from literature to actual deeds."
In this regard, he said that more than ten issues of an integration nature were considered at the meeting, including engineering support of the CIS armies, the creation and improvement of communication systems, military-technical cooperation and standardization and unification of topographic and geodetic information.
