TASHKENT, August 5. /TASS/. Russia has increased the supplies of weapons to Central Asian countries to help them ward off likely terrorist threats, the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday.

"For providing a proper response to the worsening of the situation in the region and practicing operations to ward off terrorist threats a number of joint exercises are to be held in the territory of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Extra supplies of weapons and military equipment and hardware have been arranged for within the framework of military-technical assistance," Gerasimov said at a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Shukhrat Khalmukhamedov.

Gerasimov said that Russia was providing methodological assistance in upgrading Uzbekistan's armed forces and training Uzbek military personnel at its military academies.