TASHKENT. Aug 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Uzbekistan will have a small but professional army, President Islam Karimov told the press during a break in the parliamentary session in Tashkent on Thursday.
"We need a mobile and highly professional army," he noted.
It is planned to reduce the national armed forces to 52,000- 55,000 men by 2005, the president said. The armed forces will be reduced by 10,000-15,000 men on average within the next three years.
Karimov has proposed to parliament the idea of cutting the period of active military service from 18 to 12 months. "One year in the army is the optimum term," he said. "We studied the experience of developed nations before we arrived at this conclusion."
A joint staff encompassing departments of the Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Border Committee, and the National Security Service has been formed in the course of army reform. Five territorial military districts have been formed.