RUSSIA, IRAN ON MILITARY-TECHNICAL COOPERATION








MOSCOW, MARCH 12. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT/. Early on March 14 Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev will meet the chief of Iran's military establishment, Vice-Admiral Ali Shamkhani. Today he has arrived in Moscow with a government delegation, a spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti.


	"The meeting will be private", reported the spokesman. The two defense ministers will focus mostly on the fulfilment of agreements on resumption and development of military-technical cooperation, which were reached during Igor Sergeev's official visit to Iran last December.


	The Defense Ministry spokesman stressed that "military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran is not aimed against third countries and does not pose threat to  security and stability in the region".


	Leonid Ivashov, chief of the main department for international military cooperation at the Russian Defense Ministry, said recently that "military and military-technical cooperation between Russia and Iran is developing well". "Moscow and Teheran have a mutual interest in the training of specialists, reconditioning of Russian-made military hardware and armaments which are in service with the Iranian armed forces, and in supplying to Iran new specimens of armaments allowed by the Russian international obligations", said the Russian military leader.


	The resumption of Russian-Iranian military-technical cooperation became possible after Russia withdrew from the Gore-Chernomyrdin memorandum, noted the general. Since 1905 Russia has never concluded such documents comparable to an ultimatum, stressed Ivashov. While the memorandum was in effect Russia could not supply to Iran not only armaments but even dual-purpose products and Americans also reserved the right to impose sanctions against Russia and to decide on their own whether these products are military or not, said General Ivashov. 


	Commenting on the United States' concern over the renewal of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the military-technical field, Ivashov said that US-made aircraft adopted by the Iranian air force "are being used". Units and spare parts for US aviation technology are shipped through third countries and front companies, he continued. Simultaneously, "all Russian-made aircraft in service in the Iranian air force now stand on the ground because Russia sticks to the clauses of the Gore-Chernomyrdin memorandum", said Ivashov.


	The Russian Defense Ministry's representative told RIA Novosti that apart from matters of development of military-technical cooperation Igor Sergeev and Ali Shamkhani will discuss also the struggle against terrorism and separatism, meaning above all the threat emanating from Afghanistan for the security of Russia, Iran and other countries in the region. The two defense ministers will also exchange opinion on the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east, the Russian proposals on creating a non-strategic antiballistic missile defense system, and the strengthening of the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies. (nov/nog)