DUSHANBE, December 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — Security Council secretaries of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have decided to set up the center for coordination of terrorism and extremism countermeasures.
The Armenian Security Council Secretary Artur Bagdasaryan remarked this on December 10, while speaking to reporters after the CST security council secretaries’ meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, according to Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass.
“We have agreed to set up the coordination center for countering terrorism and extremism, drug trafficking and illegal migration,” Bagdasaryan said. According to him, the center will also promote formation of the collective potential for mitigation of effects of natural and anthropogenic disasters.
During the two-day meeting that ended on December 10, the CSTO security council chiefs also supported Russia’s initiative on concluding a new legally binding treaty on European security.
“Taking into account the need for drafting this document with equal participation of all countries and international organizations on the Euro-Atlantic space, CSTO member-states hail the Russian-French initiative to hold a pan-European summit on the OSCE platform with the CIS, CSTO, the European Union and NATO to discuss a future architecture of European security,” they declared in a statement on Wednesday.
The CSTO members are now Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The regional security organization 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, and was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO. Uzbekistan joined the organization in 2006.
