A major security threat for the Central Asian nations is now emerging in Afghanistan, where international terrorist organizations are gaining in influence and Western countries are working more actively with armed groups based outside of the country’s dominant Pashtun ethnic group, Shoigu said at the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security.
"The security of Russia's CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) allies in Central Asia is a key priority for the work of Russia’s defense agencies. Today, the main challenges and threats to the region are emerging from within Afghanistan, which is seeing growth in the influence of international terrorist organizations after [the collapse of] the decades-old US protectorate," he said.
The Russian defense chief noted that Western countries are increasing their interactions with various ethnic-based, non-Pashtun armed formations. "The intent of their actions is clear. On the one hand, a conflict hotspot is created in the border zones of our partners, while, on the other hand, military assistance is offered to neutralize the conflict [thus artificially created]. All the while, the interests of the civilian population and the stability of government authorities are not duly taken into account," Shoigu added.
"There is nothing unique and invulnerable to Russian weapons on the battlefield today," the minister said elsewhere in his remarks. "In many cases, even Soviet-made military equipment is superior in terms of its combat qualities to Western models."
According to him, the Russian Defense Ministry has data regarding the unbiased control on the elimination of Western weapons. He added that Russia was ready to share with its partners assessments concerning the weak sides of the Western military equipment.
Shoigu noted that the same situation remains with the combat training of troops and the planning of the special military operation.
"According to previous statements on behalf of a number of high-ranking NATO officials, over 75,000 Ukrainian troops underwent military training in line with the Western standards," TASS quoted the Russian defense minister as saying.
"Many of them were deployed to the frontline, were then taken prisoners and later revealed in detail all methods of NATO’s military training," Shoigu said adding that the majority of captured troops spoke negatively about the Western military training practice.
"Today we have an opportunity to discuss in detail the issues of security in Africa, outline and revise the priorities of military and military-technical cooperation. Discussions at the Russia-Africa summit strengthened our confidence that countering neocolonialism, together with countering the terrorist threat, is the basic element of cooperation," he further stressed.
The West’s activities on the African continent are, first of all, aimed at maintaining the possibility of pumping out national resources of former colonies through supporting conflict zones, the minister said, adding that a variety of antigovernment and terrorist groups are being used for that.
MP/PR
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