The deal for a joint air defense system between Kyrgyzstan and Russia was approved by the parliament on Wednesday, one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to visit the Central Asian nation.
According to the agreement, a five hectare (12 acre) block of land at the Russian military facility in Kant, Kyrgyzstan, will be used for the joint initiative.
“Lawmakers examined and adopted the bill on the ratification of the agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation for the creation of a Joint Regional Air Defense System,” the Kyrgyz parliament said.
Putin was supposed to visit Kant, but the Kyrgyz presidency informed AFP on Wednesday that the trip had been postponed without offering any other information.
The Russian president will still meet with Sadyr Japarov, his kyrgyz counterpart, on Thursday. The following day, he will attend a conference of leaders from post-Soviet nations.
According to the Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti, the agreement for a combined defense system between their two nations is effective for five years.
Similar agreements exist between Russia and other allies like Tajikistan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
The announcement comes amid recent criticism of Moscow’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which consists of six post-Soviet governments.
Members of the CSTO agreed to defend one another in the event of an attack, but Moscow declined to step in when Azerbaijan began an invasion against Nagorno-Karabakh, a statelet ruled by ethnic Armenian separatists.
In order to stop border conflicts between members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the alliance has not dispatched peacekeeping forces.
