DUSHANBE, June 10, 2014, Asia-Plus – Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo is participating in a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Member Nations that is being held in Moscow today.
Presided over by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the meeting is reportedly discussing issues related to the situation within the CSTO responsibility area and military cooperation between the CSTO member nations.
According to the SCTO Secretariat, the meeting participants will so discuss documents concerning the plan of consultations on foreign policy, security and defense for the second half-year of 2014 aNd the first half-year of 2015 as well as the plan of deployment of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (KSOR).
The CSTO defense ministers will also review the list of enterprises and organizations, specialization of which will be preserved for the benefit of military and economic cooperation between the CSTO member nations.
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.
