DUSHANBE, May 15, 2015, Asia-Plus — The next meeting of the Committee of Security Secretaries from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will take place in the Tajik northern city of Khujand from May 19-20.
Security Secretaries from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian and Tajikistan as well as the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha will participate in the meeting that will be presided over by the Tajik Security Council Secretary Abdurahim Qahhorov.
Issues related to providing regional security, latest developments in Afghanistan and the ongoing training for contingents of the CSTO Collective Operational Reaction Force (CORF) that is being conducted at the Harbmaydon training ground in the Tajik southern province of Khatlon will be in the focus of the meeting, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.
More than 2000 servicemen from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan are reportedly participating in the training.
Russian news agency TASS reports Russia’s armed forces airlifted more than 450 paratroopers and more than 60 military hardware to Tajikistan for participation in the training that is being conducted in Tajikistan’s district bordering Afghanistan.
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.
