DUSHANBE, December 9, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov is attending a session of the Committee of Security Council secretaries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that is opening in Yerevan, Armenia today.
According to the Tajik Security Council, issues related to fight against terrorism and extremism as well as drug trafficking are being a major topic of the meeting.
“The CSTO Security Council secretaries are expected to consider measures to combat terrorism and extremism as well as ways to intensify counternarcotics activities, including carrying out the anti-drug operation, dubbed Channel, on permanent basis, as well as countering illegal migration, formation of collective potential for mitigation of effects of natural and anthropogenic disasters,” said the source.
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.
