The plan is still to be approved at the session of the council at the level of defense ministers, which will take place in Brussels in June, General of the Army Yury Baluyevsky, Chief of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, said. The plan suggests a large number of practical events, totaling 200, almost 50 of which will be devoted to issues of the interoperability of the Russian and NATO armed forces.
The official also said that joint exercises in theater missile defense are to be held in 2006. Missile launches will be possible no sooner than 2007, he added.
Maneuvers of special task forces are also to take place in Russia in 2006.
NATO is going to arrange an international conference on non-lethal anti-terrorist methods in 2006. Such methods temporarily make it impossible for terrorists to act, Baluyevsky specified. Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense will take part in arranging the forum.
The Chief of Russia's General Staff suggested that NATO make use of the potential of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, in solving specific tasks in Central Asia and the North Caucasus. "Our proposal seems to have been given proper attention," the official said.
Baluyevsky also stressed that the Rubezh-2005 exercises proved the efficiency of the rapid reaction forces formed by the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Central Asia.
At the same time, the official said that NATO leaders had not responded to Russia's proposal on intelligence cooperation yet. He emphasized that fast information exchange would make it possible to respond to terrorist threats faster and more efficiently.
