The new Belarusian defense minister, Yury...
The ministers will focus on the military cooperation between the two countries in 2010, the spokesman said.
Zhadobin, the former state secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, was appointed defense minister in early December 2009. Zhadobin has called military cooperation with Russia, which "has a strategic nature and plays a determinative role in assuring national security", a top priority for the Belarusian government.
In September 2009, Russia and Belarus held the Zapad 2009 military exercises, which involved around 13,000 service personnel, 63 airplanes, 40 helicopters, 470 infantry fighting vehicles, 228 tanks and 234 artillery pieces.
The exercise, among other things, rehearsed interoperability within the framework of the Belarusian-Russian integrated air defense system, which the two countries agreed to establish earlier in 2009. In December that year, the agreement was ratified by the Russian parliament.