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Russian Defence Minister Discusses CIS Security Issues At Baku NewsC

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  • Russian Defence Minister Discusses CIS Security Issues At Baku NewsC

    RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER DISCUSSES CIS SECURITY ISSUES AT BAKU NEWS CONFERENCE

    Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow
    31 May 06

    At a news conference following the meeting of CIS defence ministers
    in Baku on 31 May Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister
    Sergey Ivanov commented on a number of regional and international
    security issues.

    On the subject of Iran, Ivanov said that Russia's proposals on
    resolving the nuclear problem remained under consideration. "Russia
    has made a number of well-known proposals and initiatives, which
    remain on the negotiating table, and as far as I know, these were
    positively received by the international community," AVN (0700 gmt)
    quoted him as saying. "Russia, on the one hand, believes that every
    country should have the right to benefit from using nuclear energy
    for peaceful purposes, but, on the other hand, advocates that all
    international nuclear non-proliferation regimes be very strictly
    observes and enforced," he added.

    Ivanov proposed bringing the adapted Conventional Armed Forces in
    Europe (CFE) Treaty into force on a temporary basis from October
    this year, a second AVN report said (0736 gmt). "We are fulfilling
    all our obligations under the CFE, including under the flank zone
    restrictions in the North Caucasus," Ivanov stressed. Pointing out that
    the adapted treaty has so far only been ratified by four countries,
    including Russia, he said this was a sign of "double standards"
    in the evaluation of Russian and US military presences abroad.

    He saw the recent agreement allowing the USA to set up a base in
    Bulgaria, which could house up to 5,000 troops, as further proof of
    this. "In response to our question about the purpose of this [base] we
    are told that this is an insignificant military presence," he said. "At
    the same time, demands are made that Russia withdraws its peacekeepers
    from the Dniester region, where there are only 1,500 of them. Some
    of them fulfil peacekeeping functions and prevent the resumption of
    military actions between Moldova and the Dniester region, and some -
    several hundred - guard ammunition and property depots that have been
    left behind by the former 14th Army." "We have already withdrawn all
    the heavy hardware restricted under the CFE from there, but we cannot
    abandon these depots, because this is Russian property and we are a
    responsible state, and we cannot allow this ammunition to find a way
    into somebody else's - terrorists' - hands. We will guard these depots
    until a political settlement of the Dniester problem is achieved,"
    Ivanov said.

    Speaking on regional issues, the Russian defence minister raised
    the possibility of sending a peacekeeping contingent into Nagornyy
    Karabakh and said that the rotation of Russian peacekeepers in South
    Ossetia would continue, despite complaints from the Georgian Defence
    Ministry. He insisted that the withdrawal of Russian military hardware
    from the Akhalkalaki base in Georgia to Armenia would not have negative
    effects in the region. "This cannot lead to the destabilization of
    the military-political situation in the region.

    Moreover, the withdrawal of this hardware does not violate the flank
    zone restrictions of the CFE," a further AVN report (0740 gmt) quoted
    him as saying.

    Ivanov also told the news conference that Russia believes that the
    Caspian states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and
    Iran) should be responsible for ensuring security and order in the
    areas without the intervention of third parties, AVN reported at 0855
    gmt. "We must introduce order here - we must fight against poaching,
    the pollution of the Caspian and the drugs trafficking, which takes
    place in the region. This is all in our hands," he said

    At 0801 RIA-Novosti added that Ivanov had also commented on Russia's
    decision to pull out of a project to build An-70 military-transport
    aircraft with Ukraine. "As for the An-70 project, this project is
    being carried out in accordance with technical requirements set out
    in 1984 and there is still no end to the work in sight. We will see
    what happens next," he said, promising the Defence Ministry would
    issue a separate statement on the issue.
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