A meeting of Tahir Khairulloyev, Deputy Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) with Javier Francisco Cepero Garcia, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to the Russian Federation, Belarus and Moldova took place in Moscow on March 3.
According to the CSTO press center, the two sides discussed the progress of implementation of the plan of cooperation between the CSTO and the ICRC.
They reportedly also clarified formats of joint events scheduled for this year and reached mutual understanding on the procedure of interaction on the issue of preparations for the 7th High-Level Coordination Session of the ICC and the CSTO.
They also touched upon the issue of the possibility of participation of the ICRC in the CSTO military exercises that will be conducted in Tajikistan this year, the CSTO press center said.
Tahir Khairulloyev is the son of the ex-Minister of Defense of Tajikistan Colonel-General Sherali Khairulloyev. He has served as Deputy Secretary-General of the CSTO since January 11, 2020.
Recall, four joint exercises for military personnel of the CSTO member nations, namely an operational-strategic exercise dubbed “Combat Brotherhood-2021”, a special exercise for military reconnaissance units dubbed “Search-2021”, an exercise for logistics forces dubbed “Echelon-2021”, and an exercise for the CSTO rapid response forces dubbed “Interaction-2021”, are expected to be conducted in Tajikistan this year.
The SCTO military personnel will rehearse coordination and interaction in combat missions to prevent attempts by militants of international terrorist organizations to infiltrate in territories of the CSTO member nations.
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.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 (Protocol I, Protocol II) and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.
