DUSHANBE, August 1, 2009, Asia-Plus — Presidents of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan gathered in the Kyrgyz resort of Cholpon-Ata for an informal summit on July 31.
The CSTO leaders agreed on Friday to establish an information security center in Moscow, Russia’s Vesti reported.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said the center will help member states exchange information on Internet security and their experiences with combating cyber crime. He added that a center for youth education would be established in Cholpon-Ata.
“The sides agreed to go into the issue of setting up the center for information technologies in Russia. It is a serious issue,” Vesti quoted the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha as saying.
The summit participants also exchanged views on a number of international problems such as the global financial crisis, international security and discussed prospects of further development of the military component of the organization, Vesti said.
According to Russia’s Itar-Tass, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev considered the situation that is developing in the zone of responsibility of the CSTO member states as knotty. In the opening remarks at the Cholpon-Ata summit, Bakiyev noted that he first of all implied “issues of security and issues connected with international terrorism.” Focusing on them, he mentioned the events in the Caucasus and in Kyrgyzstan “Two groups of gunmen were destroyed within June, and 18 people were arrested. They are all connected with international terrorism. This is an important issue, and it concerns everybody,” Bakiyev noted.
We will recall that during the previous CSTO summit that was held on June 14, the CSOT leaders signed an initial agreement on creating the Collective Operational Reaction Forces. However, leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan refused to ink the deal.
Both President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus and President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan participated at the Cholpon-Ata informal summit. According to Radio Liberty, that has raised hopes — at least in Moscow — that a final agreement on the rapid-reaction force may finally be signed.
In the meantime, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Kyrgyzstani President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a memorandum on further development and improvement of the bilateral legislative basis regulating the presence of Russian military units on the territory of Kyrgyzstan and on deployment of a supplementary Russian military contingent there.
