DUSHANBE, December 9, 2013, Asia-Plus – A roundtable formally titled “Afghanistan and Central Asia in 2014: Role of CSTO in Providing Regional Security” is being held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan today.
According to Kyrgyz parliament’s website, the meeting participants will discuss the results of Kyrgyzstan’s rotating presidency of the organization in 2013 and possible regional risks, challenges and threats connected with the situation in Afghanistan in 2014.
The meeting will also discuss issues related to cooperation between Central Asia’s nations in the framework of the CSTO and other interstate organizations for the purpose of strengthening regional security and international partnership.
The regional security organization was initially formed in 1992 for a five-year period by the members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) — Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan at a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They were joined by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Belarus the following year. A 1994 treaty reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force, and prevented signatories from joining any “other military alliances or other groups of states” directed against members states. The CST was then extended for another five-year term in April 1999, and was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO. Uzbekistan that suspended its membership in 1999 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. On June 28, 2012, Uzbekistan announced that it has suspended its membership of the CSTO, saying the organization ignores Uzbekistan and does not consider its views. The CSTO is currently an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
