The countries share deep concerns of a future military threat from the east -- namely, Russia -- and may now look for other defense assurances from their NATO allies.
Even members previously reluctant to intervene in Sudan, namely China, which buys its oil, and Russia, which sells it guns, are expected to approve them.
It has done little to tackle the rudimentary problem in Russia's agricultural sector -- namely the absence of institutionalized ownership of land -- and has likely retarded the privatization process.