DUSHANBE, March 16, 2011, Asia-Plus — In a statement delivered at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Working Group on Afghanistan in Dushanbe, Tajik Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov revealed on March 16 that new gangs are being formed on the territory of Afghanistan for destabilization of situation in neighboring countries.
According to him, militants are being trained in terrorist camps located in the areas out of the control of the Afghan authorities and in areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. “We have enough information,” Azimov stressed.
Tajik Security Council secretary considers that operations carried out in Afghanistan by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have not yielded proper results. “The sooner the situation is stabilized in Afghanistan the better for us, because stability in both Central Asian member nations of the CSTO and other CSTO nations depends to a large extent on the situation in Afghanistan,” Azimov added.
The CSTO set up its Working Group on Afghanistan in 2005. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted in November 2005 that the CSTO foreign ministers agreed that threats, including drug and terrorist menaces, have persisted largely due to the situation in Afghanistan, which has remained tense. “We studied the situation and decided to set up a body, a working group, to monitor developments and ensure opinion exchanges with our Afghan colleagues,” Lavrov said.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization now groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
