DUSHANBE, March 1, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday February 28, visiting Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Council (CSTO) Nikolay Bardyuzha met with Tajikistan’s Drug Control Agency Director Rustam Nazarov.
A source at Tajik counternarcotics agency said that in the course of the talks the two considered issues related to the fight against drug trafficking and the drug-trafficking situation in the region as well as ways to expand cooperation between member nations of the CSTO in fighting drug trafficking.
During the meeting, Nazarov and Bardyuzha also discussed the agenda of a session of the CSTO council of heads of counternarcotics agencies, which will be held in the Belarus capital of Minsk in March.
The CSTO secretary general arrived in Dushanbe on February 27 for a five-day working visit. The same day, he met with Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zaripov. Yesterday, Bardyuzha delivered a lecture at Russian-Tajik Slavic University on the subject of fight against international terrorism, religious extremism and other modern challenges.
Bardyuzha’s visit to Tajikistan is the first leg of his working tour of member nations of the Organization to inform state heads of the CSTO activity and discuss preparation of the next meeting of the Collective Security Council.
CSTO members – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – use the organization as a platform for fighting drug trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime, and have pledged to provide immediate military assistance to each other in the event of an attack. The bloc has a Collective Rapid Reaction Force deployed in Central Asia, and is continuing to build up its military forces.
