BAKU, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - Defense ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States will discuss the scope of future military cooperation at a meeting Wednesday in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.
The 21 items on the meeting's agenda include implementation of the Concept for CIS military cooperation to 2010, the activities of CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, and a joint action plan for operative training in the CIS armed forces for 2007.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov arrived in Baku on May 30 and met with his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoliy Hrytsenko. A source in the Russian delegation said Russia had prepared a draft agreement on joint inspection of Russia's Black Sea Fleet bases in Ukraine that will be signed during the meeting.
The CIS, a loose association of former Soviet republics, comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan discontinued permanent membership on August 26, 2005 and is now an associate member.
The Armenian delegation has refused to attend the meeting in Baku, citing security reasons in an ongoing dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorny-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that has a largely Armenian population.
