DUSHANBE, April 13, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha will visit Tajikistan on April 23, according to the MFA information department.
During his stay in Dushanbe, the CSTO secretary general will hold talks with Tajik officials to discuss issues related to providing and strengthening regional security, further improvement of activities of the Organization, military-economic cooperation between member nations, as well as the situation in Afghanistan, the source said.
It cannot be ruled out that the issue of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force will be discussed in Dushanbe as well.
Two-day consultations of representatives from CSTO states to consider draft documents regulating activities of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force are starting in Moscow today. According to the CSTO Secretariat, representatives from the security councils, defense, interior and emergencies ministries as well as some other government bodies of member nations of the Organization are taking part in the consultations.
We will recall that the presidents of member nations of the CSTO gathered in Moscow on February 4 this year to sign an agreement to create a joint rapid reaction force. Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed the pact with reservations, agreeing to commit Uzbek forces not permanently but on a mission-to-mission basis.
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 member 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.
