DUSHANBE, May 27, 2013, Asia-Plus — Defense ministers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have signed agreements on defense cooperation during a meeting in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, Radio Liberty reported on May 27.
Ministers from the post-Soviet military bloc — which groups Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Armenia — finalized deals on joint combat training and the military armaments required by the group.
The Kyrgyz defense minister and current CSTO chairman, Taalaybek Omuraliyev, also said he would seek to raise the CSTO”s “military potential” ahead of the NATO pullout from Afghanistan.
Omuraliyev also met separately with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for talks on military cooperation between the two countries.
The talks come days after Kyrgyzstan’s president, Almazbek Atambayev, repeated a pledge to evict the United States from the Manas air base outside Bishkek next year.
