TBILISI. June 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has decided to send a Defense Ministry official to the session of the CIS Defense Ministers Council that is to take place in the Kazakh capital of Astana on June 9.
"Leaders of the country and Defense Ministry have charged me to represent Georgia at the CIS Defense Ministers Council session," Deputy Defense Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told Interfax- Military News Agency on Thursday.
He earlier told Interfax-AVN that Georgia will not take part in the next meeting of the CIS defense ministers in Astana.
"Defense Minister David Tevzadze will be on foreign missions during this period of time. At the same time, military delegations of various countries will be visiting in Tbilisi then," he stressed.
Bezhuashvili said he was instructed to inform the defense ministers of CIS nations on Tbilisi's official position on all issues on the agenda.
"Georgia's position differs from the approach suggested by the agenda in nearly all of these issues," he said.
The CIS Defense Ministers Council session will be chaired by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Its agenda contains over 30 issues related to the development of integration processes in the military sphere.
In particular, participants in the session are planning to discuss the plan of joint operational and combat training of the CIS armed forces for this year, strengthening of the CIS Unified Air Defense System, safety of aircraft flights in the CIS framework, and military-technical cooperation.
Participants in the session will also exchange opinions on the military and political situation on southern borders of the CIS in the context of the ongoing coalition fight against international terrorist gangs in Afghanistan.
They will primarily discuss coordination and pooling of efforts to counter international terrorism and religions extremism, as well as escalation of the fight against the drug threat on southern borders of the CIS.