On Friday September 8, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received visiting Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (SCTO), Yuri Khachaturov.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, the two discussed issues related to making preparations for the next meeting of the CSTO Council of Heads of State that will take place in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in November this year.
Tajik leader reportedly expressed satisfaction with the work done on creation of a common system of collaboration between CSTO member nations in the fields of defense and security.
Rahmon and Khachaturov exchanged views on a common stance of the Organization member nations on the current situation in Afghanistan, strengthening of the Tajik-Afghan border for the purpose of providing security of the outer border of the CSTO member nations, and other hot spots of the world, the website said.
Tajik leader and CSTO secretary-general pointed to the necessity of intensifying joint struggle against terrorism, extremism and regional and other global and regional threats and challenges
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.
