MOSCOW. Jan 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The CIS military cooperation coordination headquarters has drafted a treaty on development and implementation of military-technical cooperation programs involving member nations of the Commonwealth, Major General Valery Tsurkan, deputy head of the military-technical cooperation department in the headquarters, said on Thursday.
The document elaborated jointly with other interstate bodies and interested ministries and departments "is acceptable for all CIS nations and does not require substantial changes in national legislation," Tsurkan told Interfax-Military News Agency. "At the same time, it will enable nations of the Commonwealth to expand their opportunities in the sphere of military-technical cooperation," he said.
The draft document envisages establishment of a special order of military-technical cooperation between its signatories that is different from the common order of foreign economic activity of nations related to military-purpose products and that makes it possible to launch joint production and mutual supplies of these products on beneficial conditions.
"We believe that ratification of the treaty by interested CIS nations will make it possible to systematize the military- technical cooperation, create a mechanism of financing, placement and implementation of orders for military-purpose products, fix their prices and an order of their movement across the borders of nations signatories of the treaty that implies customs and other benefits," Tsurkan said.
According to him, development and implementation of interstate military-technical cooperation programs is a top- priority sphere of activity. "There is still no legal background within the Commonwealth that makes it possible to carry out joint activities ranging from technical research to its practical realization," he said.
The draft will be considered by the military technical committee under the CIS Defense Ministers Council at its session in Moscow on January 17.