Russian airbase to appear in Belarus?

The issue might have been arranged yesterday at a meeting of the CIS Defence Ministers Council in Moscow.

The information was spread by the website “Military and Political Review” with a link to sources in the Ministry of Defence.

Belarusian Defence Minister Yury Zhadobin said after the meeting that among all other countries Russia and Belarus demonstrated the greatest progress in the issues of cooperation in joint air defence.

Taking into account the high level of interaction between the countries' armed forces and existence of the regional military group, these words can be followed by significant steps, in particular, deployment of a Russian airbase in Belarus.

It should be reminded that 26 items were on the agenda of the meeting. The most positive result of the meeting was that all defence ministers approved the need to continue cooperation and keep the balance of the joint, regional and national interests.

The joint actions plan of the CIS United Air Defence System for 2013 was discussed. It is expected that more than 0.5 billion rubles will be spent on implementation of the plan.

Joint military exercises with practice “Military Cooperation 2013” at Ashuluk shooting range in Russia were named as an example of joint events. The exercises will train cooperation and formation of the common information space, improvement of the management system and maintenance of combat operations in repelling air attacks.