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Defence & Security News - Tajikistan
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| Russia to maximize its aid to Tajikistan through arms deliveries | |||
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Russia will do its best to provide aid to the Tajik Army in the form of arms exports, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Ivanov said during a meeting with Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo.
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 The Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo |
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"Our Tajik friends and brothers have encountered new challenges and threats due to the problems emanating from Afghanistan. It is very important to us to understand what is going on there, what you are doing, and to assist the Tajik Armed Forces as much as possible by supplying arms and other materiel and providing everything necessary for increasing their combat capabilities," Antonov said.
The Russian deputy defense minister stressed that Tajikistan was a Russian priority in terms of military and military technical cooperation. "We proceed from the premise that the higher Tajikistan’s security, the higher the Russian Federation’s security," he added. Antonov also promised that the 201st Russian Military Base stationed in Tajikistan would be used "to defend the national integrity and sovereignty of Tajikistan and, of course, CSTO as a whole," if need be. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia had supplied Tajikistan with 12 Mil Mi-8/17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) helicopters, including eight upgraded Mi-8MTVs, two Mi-24P (Hind) attack helicopters, four L-39 Albatros trainer jets and an S-125 Pechora-2M (SA-3 Goa) surface-to-air missile system with 50 V-600 missiles for it from 1993 to 2013. In addition, the handover of 12 more Mi-8/17 utility and 12 Mi-25P attack helicopters to Tajikistan was cleared in 2013. |
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