All news

Minsk sees military cooperation with Moscow as productive

A Belarusian military official notes that bilateral cooperation sometimes faced some problems, but they are 'never crucial'

MINSK, October 25. /TASS/. Belarus and Russia have been maintaining successful military and technical cooperation within the Union state and in relations with other countries, Chairman of Belarusian State Military Industrial Committee Sergey Gurulyov said.

"We have been closely and beneficially cooperating, we have the necessary regulatory basis so that we operate legally," Gurulyov noted in summing up the meeting of the Belarusian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Military and Technical Cooperation that took place last week in Baranovichi in the Brest region. "The regulatory basis covers the development of new weaponry and military hardware including joint production in the interests of Russia and Belarus as well as other countries," he added.

Gurulyov admitted that bilateral cooperation sometimes faced some bumps in the road, "but these problems are never crucial." "We have no mutual claims, sometimes personal mistakes emerge but no more than that. Regardless of the situation’s developments, we are determined to move further ahead," the Committee chairman stated.

Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Alexander Fomin, in turn, said that Moscow and Minsk cooperated in various military spheres. "This includes the development and production of weapons and military hardware for both countries and some purely commercial projects," Fomin elaborated. According to him, the two countries have drawn up an extensive legal framework that allowed them "to be responsive to any situation within the Collective Security Treaty as well as on bilateral level."

At the intergovernmental commission meeting, a number of issues "concerning practical interaction between the Belarusian defense companies and the Russian defense industry were discussed."

The commission’s next meeting is scheduled to be held in 2017 in St. Petersburg, Russia.