Russia will join the Central Asian Cooperation group, the Kremlin announced on Saturday

Russia will join the Central Asian Cooperation group, the Kremlin announced on Saturday. The organization aims to promote security cooperation, political and economic integration among the former Soviet republics in the Central Asia region. The group is due to meet this weekend in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Putin is to travel there en route home from a three-day visit to China. The Kremlin said Putin had directed that Russia sign a protocol on joining the Central Asian group. "The protocol foresees the further strengthening and development of the multifaceted cooperation and joint action in all spheres between the Russian Federation and the states of Central Asia, based on the relations of friendship and good-neighborliness that have come to exist among our countries," the Kremlin said. Russia has increased its engagement in formerly Soviet Central Asia since US troops arrived in the region. Moscow opened an air base in Kyrgyzstan last year, its first new base abroad since the Soviet collapse, and is scheduled to inaugurate a new military base in Tajikistan on Sunday. Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Uzbekistan both host US-led bases, set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks to support combat operations in nearby Afghanistan.