DUSHANBE, July 30, 2008, Asia-Plus — The second phase of the command-and-staff drill, dubbed Rubezh”2008 (Frontier”2008), involving the staffs of the countries making up the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), began in Moscow today.
According to the Ministry of Defense (MoD), Rashid Vohidov, Tajikistan’s Representative to the CSTO, is representing the country in the drill that will conclude on July 31. The participants are work out military and technological assistance to a member nation that may become the target of external aggression.
We will recall that the CSTO summit that was held in Dushanbe last October resulted in signing of a protocol on defense and technology aid to member nations in case of an emerging danger of aggression against it or an accomplished fact of aggression.
The CSTO conducted the first phase of Rubezh’2008 in Armenia this month. The deputy head of the MoD general staff, Major-General Zarif Bobokalonov, represented Tajikistan in the first stage that focused on a mechanism of drafting proposals to the Collective Security Council on military and technological assistance to a country that became a target of aggression.
The first and the second stages of the exercise are essentially political stages, during which the steps will be determined for the CSTO states and the organization as a whole to take on the basis of the situation simulated in the course of the exercise in order to reduce tensions caused in the collective security region by destructive forces, and a mechanism for ensuring a political settlement of the acute situation will be worked out.
The subsequent stages, when purely military actions, traditional for all command and staff exercises, are to be practiced, will be held in Armenia from August 18-21 and in Russia from August 22-25. The military exercise is expected to involve some 4,000 military personnel from Armenia, Russia and Tajikistan.
We will recall that the Rubezh exercises have been conducted since 2005. Before that, they were conducted in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The CSTO member nations are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
