DUSHANBE, October 10, 2011, Asia-Plus — Leaders of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will gather in Moscow on December 20 for what is being billed as an informal summit.
Vladimir Zaynetdinov, a spokesman for the CSTO Secretariat, says a preliminary agreement on holding the next informal summit of the Organization in Moscow was reached at the previous informal summit that took place in the Kazakh capital Astana on August 12, 2011.
The work on the summit’s agenda is under way and appropriate invitations have already been sent to presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Zaynetdinov noted.
Meetings of the council of foreign ministers, the committee of security secretaries and the council of defense ministers will precede the summit.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is the regional security organization. It 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 became a full participant in the CSTO in June 2006. The CSTO is currently an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
