Acting Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Valery Semerikov is arriving in Dushanbe on April 19 on a working visit, according to the CSTO Secretariat.

On the same day, he is scheduled to hold talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. 

Semerikov is also scheduled to meet with Tajikistan’s foreign minister, defense minister and the Security Council Secretary.

Semerikov’s discussions with high-ranking Tajik state officials are expected to focus on issues related to multilateral cooperation in the framework of the CSTO and preparations for the next meetings of the CSTO statutory bodies.  .

A meeting of senior representatives of the Russian military industrial commission board and relevant ministries and agencies  of Tajikistan will take place here on April 20.  The CSTO acting secretary-general will also attend the meeting.   

Co-chaired by Shavkat Bobozoda, the Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan and Oleg Bochkaryov, the Deputy Chairman of the Military Industrial Commission Board, the meeting will discuss further expansion of the defense industry cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.     

The meeting participants are expected to discuss the issue of formation of cooperative and integrative ties between enterprises and organizations of the defense industries of Russia and Tajikistan, the CSTO Secretariat said.  

The Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation ( Russian acronym VPK)) was established by a presidential decree in March 2006.  According to the decree, it is a permanently functioning body with vast responsibilities for supervising the distribution and implementation of the "State defense order".  The commission answers directly to the President of Russia.  It coordinates between the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and the defense industry.  Until then, the defense industry was supervised by Russia's Ministry of Industry and Energy, as well as by the previous government consultative body with a similar name.