DUSHANBE, April 19, 2016, Asia-Plus – A training exercise for military intelligence units from five member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), dubbed
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, opened at the “Maghob” training ground in Khatlon province yesterday.
Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha and CSTO Unified Staff Chief Anatoly Sidorov attended an official ceremony of opening of the military intelligence war game.
Speaking at the ceremony, Bordyuzha noted that the main purposes of the training exercise were to rehearse joint activities of the military intelligence units and improve the system of management of the military intelligence units.
“The
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exercise will give an appropriate material to underlie proposals for improvement of joint activities in this direction and those decisions that will be made by heads of member nations of the CSTO,” SCTO secretary-general noted.
Tajik servicemen together with servicemen from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia are taking part in the ongoing military intelligence war game, which is the first of its kind.
1,500 servicemen from CSTO member states Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan are reportedly taking part in the exercise that will conclude on April 22.
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.
