BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/03/2007

Belarus,Russia to conclude agreement on wartime military equipment supplies

Pskov, Russia, March 1 (NNN-BELTA) Belarus and Russia are drafting an inter-governmental agreement on mutual supplies of military products in wartime, the deputy chairman of the Russian-Belarusian inter-governmental commission for military-technical co-operation, Vladimir Drozhzhov, stated Tuesday at a seminar of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State in Pskov, northwest Russia.

According to him, the agreement will be drafted on the initiative of the Belarusian side. The document has already been co-ordinated in the Russian Federation and has been submitted for consideration of the government of the Republic of Belarus. "The necessity to conclude the agreement arose during the joint command-headquarters game played by the defense ministries of Belarus and Russia," Drozhzhov said.

At present the level of integration between the two states in the military-technical field is rather high. Belarusian companies are involved in executing the Russian state defence orders.

According to Drozhzhov, the current Belarusian-Russian agreement of 1994 on mutual supplies of military component parts and equipment has become outdated.

"That is why we have drafted a corresponding agreement on inter-action in designing, exploiting, repairing, modernizing and destroying military equipment. The agreement is of a multi-sided format bearing in mind the fact that it will be signed by all members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO),", he said.

According to him, the document has already been considered by all CSTO countries and will be included in the agenda of the meeting of the interstate commission for military-economic cooperation, scheduled for March this year in Moscow.

Meanwhile, Belarus has suggested to Russia that a Union State programme on designing future weapons and materials covering the 2008-2010 period should be worked out. The statement was made by Sergei Turbin, head of the defence support agency of the State Defence Industries Committee of Belarus, at the Belarusian-Russian parliamentary seminar on military affairs in Pskov on Wednesday.

He said Belarus and Russia were working hard to build up the existing legal base of the military and technical cooperation. In particular, a new agreement was being developed to replace and expand clauses of the 1994 treaty on mutual supplies of military hardware components.

"Laws of Belarus and Russia allow supplying components only to produce military products. The option is not available for repairs, modernization and other kinds of work," explained Turbin.

Therefore, it was decided to work out a new Belarusian-Russian agreement on cooperation for the design, exploitation, repair and modernization, extension of service life and utilization of military products.

According to the representative of the State Defence Industries Committee of Belarus, the Belarusian side is revising a draft bilateral agreement, which regulates the supply of military products in a period of threat and wartime.

"The problem is when the military and political tensions are escalating and the military threat is on the rise, a state's demand for arms, materials and other defence products soars. We used a war game training plan to prepare a list of such products," he said.

"Certain problem aspects have been unearthed. For example, the Russian Federation does not manufacture certain products, as several assembling lines have been put in dead storage." Turbin said next week the Belarusian government would complete revising the agreement.

Regulations have been developed to fulfil the agreement: it has been defined who compiles lists of defensive products each side needs in a period of threat, who is contacted for adjusting these lists, how these demands meet the production capacity of defence industries, what decisions need to be taken if these or those products are not manufactured and some other aspects, added Turbin.

In addition, the problem of providing Belarusian defence industries with military standards of Russia is being resolved. "These military standards are not supposed to leave the country of origin. It was decided to handle the problem within the CSTO framework," he added.

"A session of the interstate military and economic cooperation commission took place in Bishkek to consider the development of regulations concerning the provision of CSTO member-states with military standards of Russia. It was decided that Russia together with Belarus would develop a simplified procedure for supplying defence industries fulfilling the CSTO's defence contracts with Russia's military standards."

Source:

http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/march/04/international/belarus_russia_to_conclude_agreement_on_wartime_military_equipment_supplies.html