Council Of CIS Defence Ministers Holds Session In Moscow

The 40th session of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which opens in Moscow on Wednesday, will focus on ways of stepping up anti-terrorist activity in the CIS, reported a source in the Headquarters for coordinating military cooperation between CIS member states. According to the source, participants in the session /which will be chaired by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov/ will discuss about 20 issues related to military and military-and-technical cooperation between CIS members. Apart from that, the discussion will touch on joint events in the framework of the United Air Defence System of the CIS and questions dealing with operative and combat training of the Commonwealth's armed forces in 2002. The session has gathered defence ministers or their authorized representatives from all Commonwealth members except Turkmenistan, the defence ministry source told RIA Novosti.