DUSHANBE, April 20, 2010, Asia-Plus — An anti-terror drill for the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Central Asian group, dubbed Rubezh-2010 (Frontier-2001), has opened in northern Tajikistan today.
Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for Ministry of Defense (MoD), says the drill has involved some 600 military personnel from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Representatives from Belarus are attending the exercise as observers.
The drill is conducted in two stages. The first stage (April 20-23) includes development of a joint ant-terror operation on blocking and annihilating illegal militant groups. The exercise will close on April 24 with a final phase at the Chorukh-Dayron training grounds featuring live-fire missions with six helicopters MI-8 of Kyrgyzstan, the spokesman said.
Tajik Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Sherali Khairulloyev, is in overall command of the ongoing war game.
CSTO is the regional security organization that 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; the treaty was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO. Uzbekistan became a full participant of the organization on June 23, 2006. The CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organization cooperation. The CSTO is an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
The organization now groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
