The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Collective Security Council, which is the highest body of the Organization, now may include heads of government of the CSTO member nations as well.
Members of Tajikistan’s lower chamber (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament today voted for ratification of amendments made to the CSTO Charter at the level of the CSTO Collective Security Council.
Presenting the amendments to lawmakers, First Deputy Minister of Defense, Emomali Sobirzoda, noted that CSTO Collective Security Council now may include heads of government of the CSTO member nations in addition to heads of state of the Organization’s member countries.
Besides, the amendments stipulate that henceforth CSTO secretary-general, his deputies and members of their families will have diplomatic immunity.
Collective Security Council in accordance with Article 13 of the CSTO Charter is the highest body of the Organization. The Council considers the fundamental issues of the Organization’s activities and makes decisions aimed at the realization of its goals and objectives, as well as ensures the coordination and joint activities of the Member States to achieve these goals. The Council includes heads of member states. Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Defense, Secretaries of Security Councils of Member States, the Secretary General of the Organization, Plenipotentiary Representatives of Member States to the Organization and invited persons can take part in meetings of the Council. The Council has the right to establish, on a permanent or temporary basis, the working and subsidiary bodies of the Organization. The Chairman of the Council (hereinafter – the Chairman) is the head of state on whose territory the regular session of the Council is held, unless the Council decides otherwise. His rights and obligations remain with him until the next regular session of the Council.
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.
