Russia wants military cooperation with Uzbekistan - Ivanov

ITAR-TASS April 25 Russia counts on development of military cooperation with Uzbekistan for rebuffing new challenges and threats, Deputy Prime Minister, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov told his Uzbek counterpart Ruslan Mirzayev in Beijing on Tuesday. Ivanov, who is on a visit in China, held a separate meeting with Mirzayev. Moscow “is preparing most seriously and carefully for new joint exercises with Uzbekistan that will be held in (Russia’s) Krasnodar region”, Ivanov said. He added that Russia and Uzbekistan “have already passed a period of certain cool in military-technical cooperation”. “We count on activation of all possible cooperation with Uzbekistan within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), but in the first place on a bilateral basis,” Ivanov said. Nirzayev said that a group of officers from the Russian army’s arms directorate had recently visited Uzbekistan, after which “contacts have begun”. Earlier in the day, Ivanov held separate meetings with the Kyrgyz and Tajik defence ministers, Ismail Isakov and Sherali Khayrulloyev, at which they discussed prospects for development of Russia’s military-technical cooperation with these states on a bilateral basis and in the SCO. Ivanov and the Tajik defence minister in particular discussed the strengthening of Russia’s 201st military base in Tajikistan.