CSTO experts to hold consultations on Afghanistan

MOSCOW, February 25 (Itar-Tass) - Experts from foreign ministries and
other ministries and departments from the Collective Security Treaty
Organization member states will meet on Thursday in Moscow for
consultations on the Afghan issue.
According to the deputy secretary general of CSTO, Ara Badalyan,
"participants in the meeting will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and
will consider offers on cooperation of CSTO member countries in fight
against challenges and threats to security coming from the territory of
that country".
Besides, they will "exchange opinions on the organization of the
transit of cargoes for international coalition forces in Afghanistan and
agreements reached in that sphere between CSTO member countries and NATO,"
he said.
The CSTO is concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, which is
seen as "critical and dangerous, and is catastrophically deteriorating,"
which of course influences the general situation in Central Asia, making
it "stably tense". The CSTO Secretariat emphasizes the importance of
"political methods and forms in the settlement of any conflicts".
The CSTO is a military and political alliance of Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was set up
on the basis of the collective security treaty of May 15, 1992. The aim of
the organization is to ensure national security of the countries
participants as well as their territorial integrity.

.120 Sakhalin Koreans move to SKorea for good February 25-26.

VLADIVOSTOK, February 25 (Itar-Tass) - A total of 120 Sakhalin Koreans
are moving to South Korea for good. They will fly to Seoul in two groups -
on Thursday and on Friday, the chairman of the public organization for the
separated families of Sakhalin Korans, Sergei Li Su Din, said.
Another group of 120 people will fly to South Korea on March 11-12, he
said. Last year about 600 Sakhalin Koreans from the so-called "first
generation", born before August of 1945, moved to the Korean peninsula.
Apartments and places of accommodation at pensions for elderly people
are ready for them in different cities of South Korea. At least another
1,000 out of 30,000 Koreans living in Sakhalin want to move to their
historical homeland, Sergei Li Su Din said.
From 1905 to 1945 the southern half of Sakhalin was governed by Japan
and was called Karafuto Prefecture. Japanese and Koreans, who were at that
time subjects of Japan, lived there.
After the end of WWII, Japanese nationals were moved to Hokkaido
Island, while Koreans were left on Sakhalin, and only for the past ten
years they have been returning in mass to their historical homeland.
All in all, over 3,500 people have moved during that period to the
Korean peninsula within the repatriation program carried out on money of
Japan and South Korea. Mass repatriation of Sakhalin Koreans to South
Korea began in 2000.

.Russian KAMAZ launches truck production in India.
NEW DELHI, February 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's KAMAZ truck manufacturer
on Thursday launches truck production in India. Heavy trucks will be
assembled at the enterprise set up jointly with the Indian company Vectra.
The plant will open in the city of Hosur (Tamilnad state) 70
kilometres away from Bangalore. Prime Minister of Russia's Tatarstan
Rustam Minnikhanov, KAMAZ Director General Sergei Kogogin and Russian
Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin will take part in the ceremony to
unveil the plant.
The sides signed an agreement on setting up a joint venture in March
2009. "We have chosen Vectra because it has experience in the production
of trucks," the director of KAMAZ's public relations department, Oleg
Afanasyev, told Tass. The contribution of each of the sides to the joint
venture was five million dollars.
At the initial stage, over 100 people will work at the KAMAZ Vectra
Motors Limited plant. Twenty-five percent of them are Russian specialists.
Indian workers have already been trained and are ready to produce trucks.
Russian specialist Denis Trifonov was appointed director of the plant.
It plans to produce 5,000 vehicles yearly. Trucks will be assembled in
accordance with Indian rules - with the wheel on the right side. Afanasyev
said that depending on sales and demand, the plant could modify models.
Possibly, it will also produce buses in the future.
"The Indian market of trucks is very lucrative," the KAMAZ specialist
believes. "Even at times of a decline during the economic crisis it was
growing, and exceeded the figure of 300,000 trucks in 2009," he stressed.
The head of the Russian trade mission to India, Mikhail Rapota, said
the opening of the plant in India is one of the most successful projects
over the recent years. "The start of the production of Russian trucks here
will become one more step towards strengthening our trade and economic
ties with India," he emphasized.
The plant in India is the fifth joint venture of KAMAZ outside Russia.
The others are operating in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Iran and Vietnam.
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