Belarusian Delegation Led by Goscomvoyenprom Deputy Chairman Dmitry Pantus Attends 14th Meeting of CSTO Interstate Commission on Military-Economic Cooperation

The 14th meeting of the Interstate Commission on Military-Economic Cooperation (ICMEC, the Commission) of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was held on 20 May in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
The meeting was attended by CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha and heads of national parts of the ICMEC from all CSTO member states. The Belarusian delegation was led by Dmitry Pantus, Goscomvoyenprom deputy chairman, head of the Belarusian part of the CSTO ICMEC.
The Commission meeting was headed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was appointed Commission Chairman in June 2015 by the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council.
Within the framework of the approved agenda the participants summed up the results of the Commission’s work and discussed the implementation of decisions in the period since the last meeting in September 2015 in Nizhny Tagil, discussed prospects for further work and made a number of important decisions on further deepening and improving multilateral military-economic cooperation among the CSTO member states.
Establishing an effective system of production and sci-tech cooperation and integration of defence companies and organisations of the CSTO member states for the production of military products, identifying possible lines of their development, including setting up interstate scientific and production associations (joint ventures) within the CSTO framework was one of the key topics at the meeting.
Among the issues addressed were giving the CSTO member states access to a high accuracy signal of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS for accomplishing common tasks, as well as standardisation of weapons and military equipment within the CSTO framework.
The Belarusian side initiated consideration of the need to simplify procedures for mutual supplies of military and dual-use products in the framework of multilateral cooperation among the CSTO member states.
The Commission recommended that the Belarusian national part should prepare a draft regulatory document governing the facilitation of mutual supplies of military and dual-use products in the framework of multilateral cooperation among the CSTO member states, including taking into account proposals of the Russian national part on working out unified rules and regulations in export control of the CSTO member states.
Among the important decisions of the Commission is an approval of the draft decision of prime ministers of the CSTO member states ‘On the Mechanism of Practical Implementation of Cooperation Issues in Joint Production of Military Products of Companies and Organisations Listed in the List of Companies and Organisations Which Specialisation Should Be Preserved in the Interests of Military-Economic Cooperation among CSTO Member States.’
The document provides for the decision making procedure on participation in the joint development and production of weapons and military equipment, as well as preservation of specialisation of companies and organisations included in the above list. This will contribute to maintaining and further improving the existing cooperation ties among defence companies of the CSTO member states in the development and production of military products.
The next meeting of the Commission will be held in Kyrgyzstan in May-June 2017.