DUSHANBE, April 1, 2015, Asia-Plus — The Working Group on Afghanistan under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Foreign Ministers’ Council will meet in Dushanbe on April 3.
According to the CSTO Secretariat, the CSTO Deputy Secretary-General Ara Nalbaldyan, national coordinators on Afghanistan, plenipotentiary representatives and experts from the CSTO member nations will deliver statement at the meeting.
The Working Group on Afghanistan under the CSTO Foreign Ministers’ Council was created to coordinate efforts to strengthen border security in Central Asia. The Working Group holds regular meetings to compare notes on the development of the situation.
On the same day, the CSTO delegation will visit the Russian military base headquarters in Dushanbe.
The Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is Russia”s largest non-naval military facility outside the country. It was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are stationed at three military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe, Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe, and Kulob, about 200 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe.
We will recall that a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Foreign Ministers’ Council will take place here tomorrow. As Dushanbe chairs the organization in 2015, the meeting of the Council will be chaired by Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov. The meeting participants will review modern problems of international policy and measures to address modern challenges and threats.
