Kyrgyz military personnel will not partake in CSTO drill in Tajikistan

The Defense Ministry of Kyrgyzstan says Kyrgyz military personnel will not partake in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) drill, dubbed Rubezh 2022 (Frontier 2022), which was launched in Tajikistan yesterday.

Citing the Defense Ministry of Kyrgyzstan, 24.kg reports that “it is specified that initially the defense ministry did not plan to participate in this event.”  

No other reasons were given, according to 24.kg.  

The active phase of Rubezh 2022 will take place at the Harbmaidon training field in Khatlon province from October 17 through October 21.   

Military contingents and operational groups of Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan are participating in this war game that focuses on the preparation and conduct of hostilities to destroy illegal armed groups that invade CSTO member nation's territory.

The exercise being conducted for units of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) of the Central Asian region of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) mainly aims to improve the practical skills of officials of the command and control bodies of the troops and increase the coherence of the units in implementing tasks during a joint operation.

Recall, Tajikistan military personnel did not participate in Rubezh-2021 military exercise that took place in Kyrgyzstan in September last year.  Military units from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as operative groups of the CSTO's United Staff and Secretariat participated in the drill that took place at Kyrgyzstan's Edelweiss training field.  The Kyrgyz Defense Ministry noted at the time that Tajik troops were originally scheduled to take part as well, but withdrew at the last moment for unspecified reasons. 

As it had been reported yesterday, official Bishkek on October 9 announced that it is canceling military exercise for CSTO military personnel.  The exercise, dubbed The Indestructible Brotherhood-2022, was reportedly scheduled for October 10-14 and was to include military personnel from all six member nations of the CSTO – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Besides, military personnel from five other countries, including Mongolia, Serbia, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, were reportedly also supposed to participate in that war game that was to be conducted at the at the Edelweiss training range.   

It is to be noted that no reason was given for the cancelation announced on October 9.

Meanwhile, some experts say that it could not be ruled out that the exercise was canceled due to the recent deadly clashes along Kyrgyzstan’s common border with Tajikistan.

Kyrgyz lawmakers have reportedly objected to Tajikistan being allowed to participate in the exercises.

Founded in 1992, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is a Russia-led military alliance currently grouping the six former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.