[SatNews] Keeping one step ahead of the bad guys just took a giant step in favor of the good guys...

The former Soviet states of Turkmenistan and Belarus have agreed on a project to jointly build an aerial drone factory in the energy-rich Central Asian nation.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday during a working visit to Turkmenistan that his country would dispatch aviation specialists to implement the project.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are needed for Turkmenistan “to monitor its territory, its borders and drug-trafficking,” Lukashenko said after a meeting with his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

Lukashenko also promised to build a facility in Turkmenistan for the servicing of Belarusian agricultural equipment bought by the Central Asian nation, which shares borders with Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Belarus currently exports a range of goods to Turkmenistan, including tractors, trucks, construction equipment, bicycles, pharmaceuticals and a range of food products. Turkmenistan, in return, exports cotton and linen.