Minsk will welcome consultations of representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence and the German Federal Ministry of Defence on November 16-17. The parties will sum up the results of the military cooperation in 2010, discuss bilateral military cooperation program for 2011 as well as assistance programs for military training in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years.
According to the Ministry of Defence of Belarus, the German delegation will be headed by Colonel General Staff of the Ministry of Defence of Germany Franz Berger.
Departments of the two countries have conducted 11 joint events within the framework of bilateral military cooperation in 2010. Members of the armed forces of Belarus participated in several events in Germany at the invitation of various German organizations. Belarusian soldiers also took part in scientific conferences, exhibitions, festivals and other events.
Belarus and Russia to Develop Military-Technical Cooperation
However, a regular meeting of the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation was held in Navalukoml, Vitsebsk voblast on November 11-12, 2010. According to the signed final protocol of the joint meeting, the parties reaffirmed their mutual interest in further development of military-technical cooperation.
As reported in the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus, one of the main points of the meeting was the improvement of the regulatory framework of military-technical cooperation and, in particular, mechanism preparation for the implementation of the Treaty between Belarus and Russia on the development of military-technical cooperation of December 10, 2009. Once the treaty has entered into force, the two sides will harmonize the domestic procedures regulations. So, the contract ratification procedure is currently underway in Russia. In Belarus the document was ratified on July 15, 2010.
In addition, until the end of this year, the parties plan to agree on a common approach to the implementation of the agreement between the governments of Belarus and Russia on the production and scientific-technical cooperation between enterprises of defense industry of May 20, 1994. Recommendations, agreed by the parties, are planned to be submitted to the Belarusian and Russian enterprises in the I quarter of 2011.
The Intergovernmental Commission also reviewed a number of issues, relating to further co-operation of defense enterprises of Belarus and Russia, implementation of joint programs, establishment of joint ventures and the possibility of incorporating a number of Belarusian military products in the Russian state defense order. The sides also considered issues of long-term contracts with the Ministry of Defence of Belarus for 2011-2015.
