MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The NATO Parliamentary Assembly's defense and security committee and the defense and security committees of the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament held a joint session here on Friday.
The agenda of the session contained two issues - the progress of military reform in Russia and problems of joint action against international terrorism. Both issues were put on the agenda at the request of NATO lawmakers.
Speaking on the first issue, Duma defense committee chairman Andrei Nikolayev said that Russia had not yet started developing a new national defense system that meet modern requirements and the state's capabilities.
The situation is complicated by several problems, Nikolayev said. In particular, military reform in Russia goes simultaneously with a dramatic reform in politics, economy and state management. According to the lawmaker, Russia has to conduct the military reform when it effectively has no allies or security guarantees, but needs to pay special attention to maintaining its nuclear missile potential of a sufficient level.
Russia's military reform largely depends on the level of the country's relations with NATO, Nikolayev stressed.
While discussing joint actions against terrorism, the participants in the session unanimously backed the proposals of NATO Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Mario Palombo concerning the necessity to set up a common database on terrorism and of Duma security committee deputy chairman Pavel Burdukov on unification of the international legal field in the sphere of terrorism's definition.
Both Russian and NATO lawmakers spoke for continuation of contacts on the level of defense and security committees.