DUSHANBE, April 7, 2015, Asia-Plus – In a statement delivered at a meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defense under the CIS Council of Defense Ministers in Dushanbe, Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo noted on April 7 that the situation in the Eurasian geopolitical space remains uneasy.

“International terrorism, which has already overstepped the boundaries of separate groups and is changing into a powerful paramilitary force, escalation of various inter-ethnic and religious conflicts in the immediate vicinity of our borders are those realities we face and have to fight,” Tajik foreign minister was cited as saying by Russian news agency Interfax.

According to him, it is possible to address these threats only by coordinated combined efforts.

Tajik defense minister reportedly noted that modern challenges and threats set before the CIS nations similar tasks, “connected with providing sovereignty and territorial integrity of our countries.”

“Concerted approach to solving these tasks is the most important factor of our interaction,” Sherali Mirzo stressed.

He reportedly noted that participants in the meeting of the CIS Coordinating Committee for Air Defense have to discuss a number of issues related to improvement of the Joint CIS Air Defense System.

Joint CIS Air Defense System (JADS) is a unified system that comprises air defense units and elements of the former Soviet republics under control of the Air Defense Coordinating Committee of the CIS.  Currently there are six de facto members of JADS: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.  The System was established by 1995 Almaty agreement.  This agreement was also signed by Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, however Georgia and Turkmenistan ceased their membership in 1997, while Uzbekistan is maintaining cooperation with Russia on a bilateral basis.

The Coordinating Committee for Air Defense under the CIS Council of Defense Ministers was set up in 1995 to coordinate the efforts to develop the unified air defense of the CIS.  It comprises the commanders of the air defense troops (air defense and air forces) of the CIS countries.