DUSHANBE, December 20, 2012, Asia-Plus – Member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have accepted Uzbekistan’s withdrawal from the regional security group.
Speaking at an enlarged meeting the CSTO Council in Moscow, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Wednesday that member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have accepted the decision of Uzbekistan to suspend its membership in the Organization.
There will be no easy terms for Uzbekistan if it wants to rejoin the Organization, Belarusian president stressed.
We will recall that Uzbekistan announced on June 28 this year that it has suspended its membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, saying the organization ignores Uzbekistan and does not consider its views.
The regional security organization was initially set up in 1992 in a meeting in Tashkent and Uzbekistan once already suspended its membership in 1999. However, Tashkent returned to the CSTO again in 2006 after it came under international criticism for its brutal crackdown of antigovernment demonstrations in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005.
The Organization now consists of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
The December 19 meeting also discussed the situation in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of most international forces in 2014.
Thus, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to develop an action program to minimize possible risks involved in the upcoming reduction of the international military presence in Afghanistan.
“It is important to remember that elections are to take place in Afghanistan [later] this year, which is bound to ratchet up tension. We need to take all of that into account in our work,” he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
Putin also stressed the need to expand the CSTO states’ capability for collective response to emergency situations.
He praised the increasing level of cooperation and foreign policy coordination within the CSTO framework. “This year more than 15 joint statements have been made on topical issues of the international agenda,” the Russian president said.
During the summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton”s recent statement that Russian-led alliances represent an attempt to “re-sovietize” the Eurasian region.
Meanwhile, the CSTO Council of Ministers of Defense yesterday approved the candidacy of Lieutenant-General Alexander Studenikin for post of chief of the CSTO Unified Staff.
