DUSHANBE, March 12, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Sherali Mirzo, today received the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha, who arrived in Dushanbe on March 11 on a four-day working visit, according to the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
An official source at a MoD says the two discussed expansion of cooperation between the CSTO member nations in addressing modern challenges and threats.
“They, in particular, discussed issues related to strengthening of southern borders of the Organization against the backdrop of the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the possible aggravation of the situation in the countries of the region in connection with intensification of activities of terrorist organizations, and training of personnel for Tajik national army in the Organization’s member nations,” the source said.
In the course of the talks, Sherali Mirzo briefed the SCTO secretary-general on the ongoing war game, involving 30,000 soldiers and officers of the Tajik armed forces and reservists from all cities and districts of Khatlon province, the source added.
Mirzo and Bordyuzha reportedly also discussed Tajikistan’s plans for the period of its rotating presidency of the Organization.
We will recall Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Anatoly Antonov, has warned that militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, who already have presence in Afghanistan, pose a threat to Tajikistan.
Antonov said that the ISIL militant group posed a threat to Russia”s partners in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
“We have noticed that in this region the first factions of the Islamic State group have emerged. We see how they are starting to push toward the southern borders of our allies, first of all those in the CSTO,” Antonov told reporters in Moscow on March 5. The main threat posed by the militants is to Tajikistan, Antonov explained.
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 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.
