DUSHANBE, May 19, 2015, Asia-Plus /Avaz Yuldoshev/ — Security secretaries from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations have gathered in Tajikistan to discuss cooperation issues.
The meeting of the Committee of Security Secretaries from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that will take place in Khujand, the capital of the Tajik northern province of Sughd on May 20 will discuss problems of international security, measures to address existing challenges and threats and the latest developments in Afghanistan.
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.
According to the CSTO Secretariat, the meeting will also discuss functioning of the system of collective response to emergency situations and measures to prevent recruitment of nationals of the CSTO member nations for participation in foreign armed conflicts.
The meeting participants are also expected to discuss and endorse the plan of consultations between representatives of the CSTO member nations on foreign policy, security and defense designed for the second half-year of 2015 – the first half-year of 2016.
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.
