MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry's main department on international military cooperation has been ordered to draft a new treaty on the status of the Russian military base in Tajikistan, a competent source with the ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The ministry has failed to come to terms with the Tajik military on the location of the 201st Russian motorized rifle division in Tajikistan, the source said.
The treaty on the status and stationing conditions of the Russian base was signed on April 16, 1999. However the Tajik leadership has lately been insisting on the relocation of Russian units from the compound in downtown Dushanbe.
The update of the signed document is a nonsense from both the legal and diplomatic points of view, Russian military experts say. The treaty has passed all coordination and legal procedures needed for an interstate document, they stress. However the update has been launched in accordance with the latest instructions.