TSKHINVALI. Dec 29 (Interfax) - South Ossetia's president Leonid Tibilov has said that the upcoming signing of a strategic partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia will create conditions for organizing a joint contour of defense security.
"The aim of the agreement is to provide defense and security for the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ossetia, as stipulated in Russia's new doctrine signed today by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," Tibilov told Interfax on Friday.
Formation of the joint defense and security contour involves building up potential and military cooperation that are necessary to ensure operational compatibility between the armed forces of South Ossetia and Russia when countering an aggressor, the South Ossetian leader said
Russia is South Ossetia's strategic partner and the only guarantor of its security, he said.
South Ossetia and Russia are set to sign the strategic partnership and cooperation agreement, given the current geopolitical situation in the region, and guided by their 2008 friendship and cooperation agreement, Tibilov said.