DUSHANBE, May 24, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajik Minister Sherali Khairulloyev will attend the next meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of Member Nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that will take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on May 27, Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD), said.
According to him, Khairulloyev is also expected to hold a number of bilateral meetings in Bishkek on the sidelines of the CSTO defense ministers’ session.
Kyrgyz media sources report defense ministers from Armenia (Seiran Oganyan), Belarus (Yuri Zhydobin), Kazakhstan (Adilbek Jasybekov), Kyrgyzstan (Taalaybek Omuraliyev), Russia (Sergey Shoygu) and Tajikistan (Sherali Khairulloyev) will attend the meeting in Bishkek.
The meeting members will also include CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha, CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov and Chief of the CSTO Unified Staff Alexander Studyonkin.
We will recall that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is expected to pay an official visit to Kyrgyzstan from May 27-29.
The regional security organization was initially set up in 1992 in a meeting in Tashkent and Uzbekistan once already suspended its membership in 1999. However, Tashkent returned to the CSTO again in 2006 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.
