§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What military assistance is being given in the current year to each of the states which were formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. [HL916]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert)The UK has bilateral defence co-operation programmes in 1999 with the following former Soviet states: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan. In Armenia. Azerbaijan and Moldova, our assistance consists of the provision of English language training to selected military officers. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, we are seeking to broaden our relationships, for instance by providing English language training and places in multilateral seminars covering a variety of defence topics, which are held in the UK.
We have a small, but well-focused bilateral programme with Georgia, involving advisory visits, training advice and English language training. In the Ukraine, we have a more extensive bilateral programme, involving a number of high and working level advisory visits, a major TA battalion-level exercise in the Ukraine, a ship visit, as well as English language training. There will also be a trilateral land exercise involving the UK, Ukraine and Poland later this year.
In Russia, the major element of our military assistance programme continues to he the Russian Resettlement Project, in which the UK will invest some £1 million during 1999. This project is aimed at 61WA retraining retiring Russian military officers for civilian life. We retrained some 2,000 in 1998, with about 6,000 since 1995 in total, and hope to achieve a similar number in 1999. In addition, we plan to hold three high-level seminars on defence topics of mutual interest, to develop relations between our respective Staff Colleges and Staff Academies, and to continue, where possible, to develop naval co-operation.
In the Baltic states, we are focusing on helping them to build national defence systems. In 1999, we will continue our support for joint Baltic projects such as the peacekeeping battalion BALTBAT, the naval squadron BALTRON, and the defence college BALTDEFCOL, including the provision of staff on attachment. Bilaterally, we will send short-term training teams to each state, to help with officer and NCO training, and we will also provide assistance and advice on range management, and voluntary defence forces. We will maintain a programme of ship visits and attachments of Baltic officers to RN ships. English language training and participation in multilateral seminars will also be offered.
In broad terms, we have budgeted to spend about £1.4 million on bilateral co-operation with Russia, including the officer resettlement programme, and £350,000 with the Ukraine. We have provision to spend some £200,000 on co-operation with each of the Baltic states. We expect to spend between £10,000 and £40,000 with each of the other states with which we maintain a bilateral defence programme.