SAMARKAND. April 12 (Interfax) - The unified air defense system of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is now being actively adapted for air and space defense missions, Secretary of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers Maj. Gen. Yury Dashkin said at a meeting of the Air Defense Coordination Committee at the CIS Council of Defense Ministers on Wednesday.
Military cooperation within the CIS is gaining particular importance and is a unique international format in totally new military and political environment, he said.
"Requirements for effective operations of all joint military systems are raised, and these requirements largely stem from dynamic changes in the forms and means of modern combat action [...] The committee is now doing large-scale work on the main areas of adapting regional CIS air defense system to accomplishing air and space missions," Dashkin said.
Uzbek General Staff Chief Shukhrat Kholmukhamedov also noted dynamic development of cooperation within the CIS. "This event is much needed amid the increasing global challenges and security threats, complex global geopolitical processes and aggravation of interstate contradictions," he said.
The content of military action, which is based on all types of air assault means, has drastically changed now, he said. "This is why a steady trend towards priority development of the Aerospace Forces and Air Defense Forces has formed in military building of the world's leading states," Kholmukhamedov said.