Uzbekistan: Uzbek-Russia military accord
Farhan Siddiqui
Uzbekistan on Saturday. The farewell ceremony was held at Tashkent's
airport. Breaking protocol, President Islam Karimov himself led the
Prime Minister to the plane.
The key goal of Putin's visit to Tashkent was "to prepare a summit
between Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Islam Karimov and to give
practical content to the co-operation," Putin told journalists on
Friday.
Putin and Karimov signed an accord on Russia-Uzbekistan military
technical cooperation on Saturday. "We are coming to a qualitatively
new level of relations in security matters. We are ready by joint
efforts to put a barrier to the spread of terrorism and extremism,"
Putin said at the signing ceremony, ITAR-Tass reported.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Vladimir Putin after signing
the accord, President Islam Karimov said ``Russia is today the country
whose help we need to maintain the stability and security of our region
as a whole.'' ``We are convinced that Russia's help and Russia's
presence in the region will allow us to repel the rampant expansion of
extremism and terrorism.''
The Russian Prime Minister made clear Russia was ready to cooperate
with Uzbekistan. ``As far as questions of security are concerned, we
are entering a new level of relations between us,'' Putin told the news
conference. ``We are ready to expand joint efforts to set down the
basis to deal with this scourge.'' He said the military cooperation
with Uzbekistan would have a "comprehensive quality" complete with
joint military exercises, military personnel training and "cooperation
in the military-technical sphere".
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