OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2012. The document was adopted following the meeting of the Belarus-Russia defense industrial cooperation taskforce. The document was signed by Chairman of the State Military Industrial Committee of Belarus Sergei Gurulev and First Deputy Chairman of the Military Industrial Commission under the Government of Russia Yuri Borisov. The program was approved and inked by First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko and Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Rogozin.

According to Vladimir Semashko, the program is a joint action plan for integration of the military industrial complexes of Belarus and Russia. Vladimir Semashko views the documents as intermediate in bilateral cooperation. There are certain restraints in the work of the military industrial complexes of Belarus and Russia. Legal framework needs to be polished for their removal. The sides intend to boost cooperation through creation of joint ventures.

Belarus and Russia are also set to intensify research and development and step up work on joint programs within the framework of the Union State.

Vladimir Semashko said he was satisfied with the results of the meeting of the working group in Minsk. He stressed that the sides will meet semi-annually to compare the notes and discuss the status of implementation of the agreements reached today.

For his part, Dmitry Rogozin said that the meeting was very important, meaningful, and symbolic. He recalled that once the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union was a single and indissoluble whole. “Now the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus came to understand that they need to build up horizontal and vertical cooperation between industries, institutions, defense and military R&D institutions,” he said. This will ensure not only the security of the two countries and the Union State but also scientific and technical industrial progress, said the Vice Premier of the Russian Government. In his view, independent states are valued highly throughout the world, and this independence relies, among other things, on the well-developed industrial military-industrial complex. “Now the sides have pragmatic interests that raise the prestige and reputation of such profession as designers, engineers, technologists,” said Dmitry Rogozin. This approach will enable the two countries to pursue industrial and hi-tech cooperation, gain their rightful place among highly industrialized powers. For this purpose the parties will built up the cooperation, and encourage the interaction between the economy and manufacturing industry of the two countries.