DUSHANBE, October 27, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Russian Federation will oppose expulsion of Uzbekistan from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) because in this case, Uzbekistan will be dropped from the orbit of the security cooperation and will seek more active cooperation with the West, right up to attempts to join NATO, Vafo Niyatbekov, an expert in international relations, said in an interview with Asia-Plus, commenting on Belarusian leader’s proposal to expel Uzbekistan from the Organization.
“Anyway, the decision to expel one or another member of the CSTO is made on the basis of consensus but not by the majority of votes,” said the expert. “If we retrace the history of the issue, we will see that Uzbekistan rejoin the CSTO after the Andijan events, when Tashkent felt threat to its security.”
“Uzbekistan has changed a vector of its foreign policy and it now looks to the West,” said Niyatbekov, “Passive participation of this country in the CSTO makes some member states, first of all Belarus, unhappy.”
It is to be noted that some media outlets reported that since 2009, Uzbekistan has declined to sign many of the CSTO’s agreements. Nonetheless, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha said on August 15 that the Organization has no plans to expel Uzbekistan, following Uzbek president’s decision to avoid the CSTO informal summit that was held in the Kazakh capital Astana on August 12, Interfax reported. According to Interfax, Bordyuzha expressed hope that Islam Karimov would attend the CSTO summit in Moscow on December 20, 2011. Meanwhile, RIA Novosti reported on August 16 that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has said those CSTO member states that remained reluctant to cooperate should leave the Organization.
