DUSHANBE, August 21, 2009, Asia-Plus — Member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have applied to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) with proposal to table an additional point on adoption of resolution on cooperation between the CSTO and the United Nations to the agenda of the 64th session, press release issued by the CSTO Secretariat said.
An explanatory note on this issue, in particular, says that at the current stage of development of international relations, interdependence between parties to these relations is increasing and political weight of regional and sub-regional organizations is rising.
“This process is mostly manifested in such key spheres as cooperation in field of military and political security, collective response to international terrorism and extremism, illicit trafficking in narcotics and weapons, transnational crime,” the note said.
This act will allow actually strengthening interaction between the CSTO and the United Nations, extending their mutual capabilities to promote establishment of peace, security and cooperation both at regional and global level.
The document also notes that emerging mechanism of peacekeeping activity within the CSTO format stipulates the possibility of using it in peacekeeping operations, including those under the umbrella of the United Nations.
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 Collective Security Treaty Organization. Uzbekistan joined the organization in 2006.
