KYIV. Jan 10 (Interfax-AVN) - A Belarussian military delegation led by Chief-of-Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Sergei Gurulev arrived in Kyiv on Thursday, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency.
The delegation is planning to meet Ukrainian Chief-of-Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Pyotr Shulyak to share experience in army reform and to discuss the state and prospects of military cooperation. The two chiefs-of-staff will sign a plan of bilateral cooperation between Ukrainian and Belarussian Defense Ministries for 2002.
The military cooperation between the two countries is going well, the spokesman said. It is regulated by an agreement of the Defense Ministers signed in 1992 and an intergovernmental agreement signed in 1994.
The Ukrainian-Belarussian military cooperation developed in accordance with a bilateral cooperation plan in 2001. The most important events included in the plan were the visit of the deputy state secretary of the Belarussian Security Council to Kyiv, the Ukrainian defense minister's visit to Minsk and the return visit of the Belarussian defense minister to Kyiv, participation of the Ukrainian military delegation in the international defense industry show in Minsk, participation of Belarussian Armed Forces officials in the Peace Shield 2001 multinational command post exercise in Ukraine, and involvement of Ukrainian military observers in the Neman 2001 tactical training of the Belarussian Armed Forces.
The most promising spheres of the Ukrainian-Belarussian military cooperation development are the exchange of experience in restructuring of the Armed Forces and security system, participation in preparations for and conduction of joint military exercises, establishment and modernization of automatic communication and control means, modernization, development and production of arms and military equipment, the spokesman said.
The draft cooperation plan for 2002 envisages 18 wide-scale joint events, ten to be held in Ukraine and eight in Belarus.