Issues related to incorporating Central Asian member nations of the Collective Security treaty Organization (CSTO) into the organization’s unified air defense and anti-missile defense system have been discussed in Dushanbe.
A meeting of the working group, presided over by deputy chief of the CSTO Unified Staff, Lieutenant-General Nurlan Ormanbetov, took place in the Tajik capital on February 12-13.
According to the CSTO official website, the meeting participants included representatives of the defense ministries of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as the CSTO Unified Staff and the basic research institutions of the Organization.
Creation of the unified air defense system in the Central Asian region was reportedly the subject of discussions.
The meeting participants decided to recommend that the CSTO Unified Staff continue work on this issue.
Recall, the issue of incorporating the Central Asian region into the military bloc’s joint air defense system was also discussed at a meeting of the CSTO Defense Council in Minsk on April 19, 2017.
Some experts consider that doing so comes as part of Moscow's pursuit of greater military and security integration with countries in its near abroad, particularly with states already closely aligned with it like CSTO member nations.
Until now, Russia has reached bilateral agreements and created a unified air defense system with Belarus and Armenia.
