Russia-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission Meeting Notes High Level of Cooperation and Reaffirms Mutual Interest in Further Development of Military-Technical Cooperation

The eighteenth meeting of the Russia-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (the Commission) was held in St Petersburg on 15 June 2017. The meeting was attended by members of the Russian and Belarusian parts of the Commission, representatives of ministries, departments and companies of Russia and Belarus.
The parties noted the high level of cooperation and reaffirmed the mutual interest in the further development of military-technical cooperation between Russia and Belarus.
Within the agenda of the meeting, which included more than 20 issues, the participants considered the implementation of previously taken decisions, highlighted the importance of the work done to implement them and discussed a number of issues of bilateral military-technical cooperation, including within the current regulatory framework governing cooperation, practical interaction among Belarusian and Russian defence companies, as well as issues of further coordination of activities in the markets of third countries.
In particular, the parties noted that the implementation of the Treaty between the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation on the development of military-technical cooperation of 20 December 2009 had allowed the countries to significantly increase the volume of military products supplied in the interests of the two countries.
The parties also discussed issues of cooperation during the practical implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on the production and scientific-technical cooperation of defence companies dated 20 May 1994.
Within the framework of the Commission’s activities, the members held a meeting of the Joint Working Group on the implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on the mutual protection of intellectual property rights used and received during bilateral military-technical cooperation dated 21 April 2005.
Following the meeting, a protocol was signed by Chairman of Goscomvoyenprom, Chairman of the Belarusian part of the Commission Sergei Gurulev from the Belarusian side and Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Chairman of the Russian part of the Commission Dmitry Shugaev from the Russian side.
The Commission decided to hold the nineteenth meeting of the Russia-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation in the first half of 2018 in Grodno, Belarus.

Translated by Olga Klevko