DUSHANBE, March 31 (AVN) - Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev will arrive here to supervise the final stage of the Southern Shield of the Commonwealth 2000 training on April 2, a source in the training staff told the Military News Agency.
A motorised rifle battalion of the Tajik Armed Forces, an enforced motorised rifle battalion of the Russian 201st division stationed in Tajikistan, Kazakh and Kyrgyz airborne companies, Uzbek and Russian aviation detachments will take part in the training. The tactical part of the training envisages combat firing.
In the course of the meeting of Sergeyev and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmanov questions of changing the functions of the CIS collective peacekeeping forces and the functioning of the Russian military base in the territory of the republic will be discussed.
According to the source in Sergeyev's administration, the necessity of discussing the fate of the peacekeepers stems from the fact that the process of national conciliation in Tajikistan has ended this week due to the beginning of the work of the new parliament.