Kazakhstan and Ukrainian defense ministers meet in Astana

    Kazakhstan Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov met with Defense Minister of Ukraine Dmitry Salamatin and Ukrainian military delegation that arrived in Astana on an official visit, Tengrinews.kz reports citing a news statement from Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry.
    According to Dzhaksybekov, military cooperation between Kazakhstan and Ukraine is regulated by the Plan for Cooperation between the Defense Ministries. "Today, we can state that our military cooperation is becoming more active and is focused on the implementation of the earlier agreements," he said.
    Meetings of the Joint Staffs Chiefs and Chief Commanders of Air Defense Forces were held in Astana in 2012. These meetings resulted in defining of new areas of interaction. Kazakhstan Defense Minister noted that regular meetings boost relations between the two armies.
    "The Program for Cooperation between the authorities is one of the examples of activation of interaction. This Program has been implemented by 100 percent this year," Kazakhstan Defense Minister said.
    During the meeting the two parties signed the Agreement On Cooepration in Military Education between Defense Ministries of Kazakhstan and Ukraine and the Cooperation Plan for 2013.
    Ukraine is an important partner for Kazakhstan in military-technical cooperation. The Ukrainian military delegation will pay a visit to Kazakhstan Engineering National company on November 19 to check on the goods produced by Kazakhstan military-industrial complex.
    Earlier Deputy Head of the Secretariat of Kazakhstan Security Council Saidmurat Tanirbergen talked about military-technical cooperation with Ukraine.
    He said the modernization of the industrial capacity of Semei Engineering that started in 2011 in cooperation with Ukrainian partners allowed to perform full repairs of T-72 tanks.
    Negotiations with Ukraine's state companies Ukr-OboronProm and UkrSpetsExport were held in February 2012 to open a center for assembly, repairs and maintenance of civil and military aircrafts in Kazakhstan.
    This project, according to Tanirbergen, is currently at the final stage of development, according to Tengrinews.kz.