DUSHANBE, December 9, 2015, Asia-Plus – Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan, Major-General Emomali Sobirzoda, who is also First Deputy Minister of Defense of Tajikistan, is participating in a meeting of the Military Council under the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that is being held in Moscow today.
Colonel Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, says the meeting, presided over by Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, is highlighting challenges and threats to military security in the CSTO area of responsibility and urgent measures to improve combat efficiency of the CSTO troops.
Besides, the meeting is also expected to discuss Russia’s activity in Syria and measures taken in response to Turkey’s hostile actions in respect to the Russian bomber aircraft.
The SCTO Secretariat says it is the seventh meeting of the Military Committee. The developed mechanism reportedly allows the heads of the general staffs of the armed forces of the CSTO member states operationally define the ways to fulfill the tasks that promote efficient development and strengthen military cooperation within the organization.
The meeting members include the heads of the general staffs of the armed forces of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, as well as CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha and head of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov.
The Military Committee was set up at the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers and its members include chiefs of general staffs of the armed forces of the CSTO member nations.
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.
