DUSHANBE, June 4, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today morning received the defense ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations who arrived in Dushanbe for a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the CSTO member nations that is being held here today.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, the meeting focused on state and prospects of further expansion of military and technical cooperation between the CSTO member nations.
Issues related to addressing modern challenges and threats were also among major topics of the meeting.
The meeting participants reportedly expressed confidence that the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers will take efficient measures to help Tajikistan strengthen its common border with Afghanistan.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a Russian-dominated regional security alliance. The CSTO now comprises the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan that suspended its membership in 1999 and 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 announced on June 28, 2012 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.
