STAVROPOL. Nov 12 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian and Azerbaijani border guards are meeting in the Azerbaijani town of Khudat on Tuesday.
"The North Caucasus regional border guard department's chief- of-staff Lieutenant General Valery Putov and a group of officers of the department's administration have arrived in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani colleagues will be represented by chief-of-staff of the border guard troops Major General Inoyat Khalilov," chief of the department's press service Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Livantsov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Border guards of Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have agreed to plan a trilateral command-post exercise, Livantsov said. "There have been no such exercises in the contemporary history of the three nations. The Russian party initiated the command-post exercise," he said.
According to the officer, colleagues from the Trans-Caucasian nations approved and supported Russia's initiative at similar meetings in Russia's internal republics of Dagestan and North Ossetia more than a month ago.
Since then, officials of the Russian, Georgian and Azerbaijani border guard agencies have worked out and coordinated the main documents pertaining to the exercise on the level of experts.
"The documents of the exercise will be finalized, and the term and place of the exercise fixed in Khudat today," Livantsov said.
In addition, the parties will discuss interaction and exchanges of current data on the Russian-Azerbaijani border and checkpoints on it in autumn and winter," the press service chief said.
"In 24 hours, Lieutenant General Putov will leave for Tbilisi to meet with Georgian border guards and consider preparations for and conduction of the command post exercise, as well as to detail current agreements between the Russian Federal Border Guard Service and Georgian State Border Guard Department on joint service on the Russian-Georgian border," Livantsov added.