DUSHANBE, May 19, Asia-Plus –Collective Rapid Deployment Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (SCTO) will have been formed by 2010, the Itar-Tass news agency cited the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bardyuzha as saying.
According to Itar-Tass, a decision on this subject was made at a meeting of chiefs of the SCTO member nations’ general staffs in Moscow.
The chiefs of the CSTO nations” general staffs held a meeting in Moscow Thursday to discuss ways to make the collective security system more effective, including by improving control of the Collective Rapid Deployment Force of the Central Asian region of collective security, which currently numbers 1,500 military personnel deployed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The meeting of chiefs of the CSTO member nations’ general staffs in Moscow resulted in signing of a protocol of the working session, and all materials will be submitted for consideration to the council of the CSTO defense ministers, which will meet in the Belarus capital of Minsk on June 22, 2006.
Besides, the session of chiefs of the SCTO member nations’ general staffs in Moscow also discussed conduct of a joint war game for forces of the SCTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The date of the drill involving troops from the SCTO and the SCO has not yet been decided. The purpose of this drill is in practicing coordination and interaction in the fight against terrorism.
The CSTO was founded in 2002 by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan to ensure peace, preserve the territorial integrity of member countries, coordinate activities in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime, and provide immediate military assistance to a CSTO member in the event of a military threat.
The SCO, which comprises four Central Asia’s states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan – as well as Russia and China, was created in 2001 to deal with security issues, including border conflicts, and terrorism. Unlike the CSTO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization does not have in its charter a provision on collective defense of its member by others in the event of an outside attack. It was created to counter attacks by illegal armed groups if they cross the border of a member-country, and its military activities are rather limited.
