DUSHANBE, June 29, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajik MP Amirqul Azimov considers that Uzbekistan’s decision to quit the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is prompted by the Uzbek authorities’ intention to get NATO’s assistance.
“The Uzbek authorities hope to get enough financial resources through providing Uzbek territory for withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops from Afghanistan,” Amirqul Azimov, who is head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Defense, Security and Public Order, said.
According to him, Uzbekistan hopes to receive a large amount of NATO weapons from Afghanistan free of charge.
Tajik MP, however, is sure that sooner or later Uzbekistan again expressed wish to rejoin the Collective Security Treaty Organization because after withdrawal of the ISAF troops from Afghanistan the situation in the region may worsen fro a long time and “at that time membership in organizations such as CSTO may become guarantee of stability in the Central Asian nations.”
Russia’s RIA Novosti reports that Tajik MP Amirqul Azimov criticized Uzbekistan’s decision to quit the organization. “Uzbekistan”s decision doesn”t help collective security in the region,” he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. Azimov said that the planned withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan would leave a “hornet”s nest” threatening Central Asia.
The Interfax news agency quoted Nikolai Fedoryak, a deputy chief of the defense and security committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, as saying that Uzbekistan may regret its decision after U.S. and other forces leave Afghanistan as scheduled by the end of 2014. He reportedly said that it’s regrettable that Uzbekistan made that move without a thorough analysis of its consequences.
RIA Novosti on Thursday quoted a Moscow-based political expert Vladimir Zharikhin as saying that Uzbekistan”s decision to suspend its participation in CSTO had been prompted by Uzbek President Islam Karimov”s intention to flirt with the United States. He added that the Uzbek leader later may again lurch in the opposite direction.
