DUSHANBE, October 15, 2015, Asia-Plus – A meeting of deputy secretaries of the Security Councils of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), presided over by the CSTO Secretary-General-Nikolai Bordyuzha, took place in Moscow on October 14.
According to the SCTO Secretariat, Iranian ambassador to Russia and representatives of China’s embassy in Moscow have been invited to the meeting that focused on a number of international and regional issues.
Representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan as well as Iran and China reportedly exchanged views on the latest developments in the CSTO area of responsibility (AoR) and neighboring regions.
The meeting participants expressed concern about activities of the so-called Islamic State (IS) organization in Middle East and its attempt to spread its influence to southern borders of the CSTO, Afghanistan and China.
They, in particular, noted that Afghanistan, where Taliban have controlled more than 60 percent of the country’s areas, is a real source of threats for the CSTO member nations. According to them, about 2,000-3,000 IS militants have appeared in Afghanistan.
The meeting participants also expressed concern about the deterioration of the situation along Afghanistan’s common border with Turkmenistan.
In this connection, the meeting participants discussed issues related to working out concerted approaches to countering IS.
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.
