The reinforced peacekeeping platoon of the Tajik Ministry of Defense (MoD) is participating in a military exercise involving peacekeeping forces of the Collected Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Kazakhstan, according to a MoD press center.
Besides, operational groups of the MoD and the Interior Ministry are participating in the exercise involving peacekeeping contingents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The Tajik military delegation is led by Colonel Jamshed Mahmadzoda, the chief of the combat training department at the Ministry of Defense.
In all, 50 personnel of the Ministry of Defense and the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan are participating in the CSTO exercise in Kazakhstan.
The exercise, dubbed Indestructible Brotherhood-2017, kicked off on October 16 and runs through October 20.
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the joint headquarters and the secretariat of the CSTO have been also invited.
Meanwhile, Russian media reports says the major purpose of the exercise on the post-conflict settlement is in deepening mutual understanding among the CSTO peacekeeping contingents. During the maneuvers, the commanders and staff are reportedly practicing to prepare for peacekeeping operations and control CSTO units, solve the tasks on localizing conflicts and improving field training during joint actions in tough conditions of Central Asia.
The participants will also train to hold negotiations, accompany humanitarian cargos, patrol and be on duty at observation points and checkpoints, and destroy militants’ training camps. The maneuvers will also involve psychological operations and information warfare units.
According to the scenario of drills, the situation will gradually change due to the massive arrival of refugees. Special attention will be paid to improving cohesion of the peacekeeping contingents.
Recall, the CSTO member nations on October 6, 2007 agreed to a major expansion of the organization that would create a CSTO peacekeeping force that could deploy under a U.N. mandate or without one in its member nations. The CSTO member nations approved a declaration establishing a CSTO peacekeeping force on December 10, 2010.
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.
