DUSHANBE, September 22, 2013, Asia-Plus – On Saturday September 21, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon left for Sochi, Russia to attend a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit that will take place there on September 23.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, State Advisor to the President for Foreign Policy Erkin Rahmatulloyev, Defense Minister Sherali Khairulloyev, Security Council Secretary Abdurahim Qahhorov, Chief of the Border Guard Department within the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) Sherali Mirzo, and some other officials are accompanying in the president on his trip to Sochi.
Some Russian media source report that the CSTO heads of state will discuss issues related to international and regional security, including the current situation in Syria, as well as joint actions after withdrawal of the NATO-led coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014.
One of the key issues of the meeting is reportedly providing collective assistance to Tajikistan with strengthening its common border with Afghanistan.
While in Sochi, Tajik leader is expected to hold talks with his CSTO counterparts.
The regional security organization was initially set up in 1992 in a meeting in Tashkent and Uzbekistan once already suspended its membership in 1999. However, Tashkent returned to the CSTO again in 2006 The regional security organization 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 that suspended its membership in 1999 returned to the CSTO again in 2006 after it came under international criticism for its brutal crackdown of antigovernment demonstrations in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005. On June 28, 2012, Uzbekistan announced that it has suspended its membership of the CSTO, saying the organization ignores Uzbekistan and does not consider its views. The CSTO is currently an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.
