KHUJAND, February 25, 2010, Asia-Plus — Senior military experts from member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have gathered today in the city of Qairoqqum, Sughd province for the second staff negotiations to discuss preparations for a joint staff-and-command drill, dubbed Rubezh-2010 (Frontier-2010).
According to a senior officer from the Sughd military registration and enlistment office, representatives from the defense ministries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan are participating at the meeting. “For the first time, the exercise will take place at the training ground of the Tajik Ministry of Defense (MoD) in this region in April this year,” the source said.
Major-General Andrei Kazakov heading the Russian delegation noted that the exercise was planned and not politically motivated. “Uzbekistan does not participate in the negotiations, though its representatives have been invited,” Russian general said.
CSTO is the regional security organization that 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; the treaty was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO. Uzbekistan became a full participant of the organization on June 23, 2006. The CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organization cooperation. The CSTO is an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
The organization now groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The CSTO employs a “rotating presidency” system and currently Armenia has the CSTO presidency.
