Russia to expand military cooperation with Kazakhstan

Russian intends to expand military and military-technical cooperation with Kazakhstan, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov announced after an audience with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"Russia devotes very close attention to the matter," he stressed. "There are some military facilities on the Kazakh territory that are very important, and we need those." According to his words, the Kazakh president had also met with other parties to the June 9 session of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or the CIS. The ministers had reported the agreement reached on military-technical cooperation and the progress of preparations and training of staff for the CIS Armed Forces. "A whole series of various exercises involving the forces of the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is due in Kazakhstan in the next 12 months," Ivanov said. "We shall be taking part in them along with our combat friends from the Kazakh Armed Forces."