MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The meeting of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council to be held in Brest on Thursday will discuss defense cooperation.
"CSTO defense ministers will discuss defense cooperation and military training within the framework of the CSTO. They will also discuss the CSTO military development plan to be fulfilled until 2010, as well as future prospects," the CSTO Secretariat press-service told Interfax-AVN.
The plenary session will focus its attention on improving the CSTO military component. For instance, defense ministers will dwell on draft documents on equipping the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces (CRDF) in Central Asia with contemporary arms and materiel, as well as improving the CRDF command and control.
They will adopt a number of documents on CSTO member-states combat training, establishing a C2 system for collective security forces, and sum up the results of the Rubezh 2006 joint tactical exercise, held in Kazakhstan in August.
CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha will brief defense ministers on restoring Uzbekistan's membership in the CSTO.
The Defense Ministers Council is a consultative and executive body of the CSTO, tasked with coordinating military policy, development, and defense cooperation within the CSTO framework. One of its major objectives consists in working out proposals on military policy, development, and defense cooperation. The council also discusses and coordinates draft documents to be submitted to the CSTO Collective Security Council for consideration, and takes steps to boost defense cooperation among and military integration of CSTO member-states.