DUSHANBE, January 5, 2016, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan is expected to host joint exercises for reconnaissance units of the armed forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations this year.
An official source at the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan says the exercises will take place at one of training grounds in Khatlon province from April 18-22.
“Such exercises will be conducted within the framework of the CSTO for the first time and they will involve more than 800 servicemen from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan,” the source said, noting that the exercises will be conducted in accordance with the plan of joint actions approved by the CSTO defense ministers for 2016.
We will recall that the CSTO troops drill against 700-strong terrorist groups’ invasion of Tajikistan was conducted on the Tajik-Afghan border in May last year. The first step was deploying the 2,500 troops, without prior notice, to the exercise site in Tajikistan”s Khatlon province. According to the scenario of the exercises, the situation on the Tajik-Afghan border seriously deteriorated. Armed groups invaded the territory of Tajikistan from the territory of Afghanistan. The Tajikistan armed forces together with other security structures carry out military operations to repel the invasion. Military units from the various CSTO member states carried out individual tasks.
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.
