Russian Defence Minister will visit a military aerodrome in Kirghizia

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on Thursday morning will visit the military aerodrome in the Kirghiz town of Kant, some thirty kilometres away from the capital of the republic where exhibition flights of the aircraft of the Air Forces of Kirghizia and Russia will take place. It is planned that on Thursday afternoon, Sergei Ivanov will accompany Russian President Vladimir Putin during his working visit to Kirghizia.

As a RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the press service of the Kirghiz Defence Ministry, during his visit to Kirghizia the Russian Defence Minister will conduct negotiations with Defence Minister of Kirghizia Esen Topoyev and a number of other leaders of the Kirghiz state.

Sergei Ivanov intends, according to him, to discuss questions of military, military-technological and military-political cooperation, as well as the possibility of deploying an aviation base of the collective rapid deployment forces of the member-countries of the Collective Security Treaty in the territory of the Kirghiz military aerodrome in the town of Kant.

According to Sergei Ivanov, the presence of the aviation group in Kirghizia in perspective "will give us and the peoples of our countries more confidence that everything will be quiet here, and this will also allow us to rebuff any attack, including quite unexpected." On Wednesday, two Russian attack planes Su-25, which arrived from Dushanbe, and three fighters Su-27 from Orenburg landed on the Kant aerodrome. The Russian military planes arrived in Kirghizia to study the possibilities of that Kirghiz aerodrome.

Last Saturday two transport planes Il-76 of the Russian Air Force with navigation equipment and with pilots and servicing personnel for fighters and attack planes on board arrived in the Kirghiz aerodrome. The planes will remain there till December 7.

Taking part in the exhibition flights from the Kirghiz side will be several training military planes L-39 Albatros, as well as An-26, An-12 and helicopters Mi-8 which are in service in the Armed Forces of the republic.

As the RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the Defence Ministry of Kirghizia, such planes must become the foundation of "the aviation component" for the collective rapid deployment forces which will be based on the permanent basis in the Central Asian region. It is planned to conclude an inter-governmental agreement on this score.

As RIA Novosti was told by sources in the Defence Ministry of the republic, in case appropriate agreements are reached on an inter-state level, a military aviation base of the collective rapid deployment forces may be opened in Kirghizia already at the beginning of the next year.

Russian planes there will not only perform the functions of the attack aviation but will also help solve the problems facing the air defence systems.