Russia views military base in Tajikistan as stability factor in region

AKIPRESS.COM - The joint actions by Russia's 201st military base in Tajikistan and the Tajik security agencies are preventing the spread of international terrorism in Central Asia while the military base has become a restraining factor for forces seeking the region's destabilization, Chief of the base's Artillery Staff Alexander Levin said, Tass reports.
"The joint actions by the Russian base, units of the Defense Ministry and other security structures of Tajikistan are becoming a guarantor of peace and stability in the region, an obstacle on the way of the spread of international terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism in the Central Asian region," he said at a roundtable discussion on the state and prospects of military and military-technical cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan.
"This has started to play a more significant role at a time when the NATO coalition forces are edging out a part of Afghan militants to the north of the country, towards Tajikistan's southern borders," he said.
The situation in Afghanistan poses a threat both to the region's stability and to international security, he noted.