DUSHANBE, February 10, 2010, Asia-Plus  - Issues related to improvement of the CIS unified air defense system and expansion of bilateral and multilateral cooperation are a major topic of the ongoing session of the coordinating committee on air defense under the council of the CIS defense ministers that opened in the Russian city of Vladimir on February 9.

According to press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), the meeting that will last till February 11 has brought together delegations of the defense ministries of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The meeting is also reviewing the results of work carried out by the coordinating committee on air defense in 2009 and considering draft resolutions on the outcomes of audit of financial and economic activities of the committee in 2009, use of allocations provided for creation and development of the unified air defense system, as well as estimate of expenditure on development of the system in 2011.

A special attention has been given to forward planning of development and improvement of the system of multilateral and bilateral military and military-technical cooperation.

Besides, the session is also considering draft interstate agreements on creation of regional air defense systems in the Caucasian and Central Asian regions.  A number of bilateral meetings are expected tot take place on sidelines of the session.