Russian Defense Minister to have counselor on military-technical cooperation with NATO

Russian defense minister will have a counselor on military-technical cooperation (MTC) with NATO already in the near future. RIA Novosti received this information from a high-ranking source in the Russian delegation which accompanies Sergei Ivanov during his visit to North and South America.

Sergei Ivanov is likely to present to our partners its counselor on military-technical cooperation with the alliance already in December at a Russia-NATO Council session, the source specified.

According to him, Russia already maintains strong ties in the MTC field with some NATO countries.

But when NATO admits new members, and all of them are former Soviet bloc countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia), which still have Russian military equipment, the MTC issue will become very acute, stressed RIA Novosti's interlocutor.

The source negatively replied to the question of whether the old NATO members will intend to re-arm the new ones with their equipment. This is costly, and therefore unreal. The Polish example shows that the Russian equipment suits the NATO arsenals, the source pointed out.

He also reported that when the above-mentioned countries enter NATO Russia will be able to raise the question on stopping the illegal production of spare parts and units to the Soviet weapons which is observed in former USSR satellites.