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Post-Soviet military alliance members to help Russia with arms import substitution

The potential of CSTO member states will be studied in order to use their industrial capacities for manufacturing the armaments or components that were earlier produced in Ukraine or purchased abroad

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will take part in Russia’s import substitution program in the defense sector, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha said in an interview with TASS on Monday.

"There are enterprises in Kazakhstan and Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia where the production of components for our defense and industrial sector can be organized. We’ll study the potential of the CSTO member states to use their industrial capacities for manufacturing the types of armaments or components that were earlier produced in Ukraine or purchased abroad, in the West," Bordyuzha said.

The post-Soviet security and military bloc will analyze which factories have remained and which technological lines are available, Bordyuzha said.

"After that, we’ll match the possibilities of a specific country with the requirements of Russia’s defense and industrial sector and find a possibility for placing orders or organizing production in the interests of the Russian defense industry. This work is currently under way within the CSTO," Bordyuzha said.

The CSTO head cited Tajikistan as an example where "there is a specific number of proposals on those enterprises that were earlier part of the defense and industrial complex [of the Soviet Union]" and could now be used in the system of Russia’s defense industry.

The CSTO head is currently on a visit to Minsk where he will meet with President Lukashenko to inform him about the organization’s activity.

The CSTO, established in 1992, is headquartered in Moscow and comprised of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In 2002, the six post-Soviet states agreed to create the CSTO as a military alliance.