DUSHANBE, March 4, 2014, Asia-Plus – First Deputy Minister of Defense of Tajikistan, Major-General Zarif Bobokalonov, who is also chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan, today morning left for Moscow to attend a meeting of the Military Committee established at the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Member Nations.
The meeting is expected to discuss issues related to military and technical cooperation between the CSTO member nations, challenges and threats to military security in the areas of the collective security and preparations for the upcoming sessions of the SCTO institutional bodies, Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for the Tajik Ministry of Defense (MoD), told Asia-Plus in an interview.
The CSTO Military Committee members include chiefs of general staffs of the armed forces of the CSTO member nations.
While in Moscow, Bobokalonov is also scheduled to hold a number of talks with senior representatives of the defense ministries of other member nations of the CSTO to discuss cooperation issues, Mahmadaliyev added.
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, which 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.
