CSTO defense ministers, security council secretaries to meet in late April

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM – Offline sessions of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Defense Ministers Council and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils will take place in Dushanbe on 27 and 29 April, BelTA has learned.

Military security, counteraction of challenges and threats, measures to neutralize them will be discussed.

Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas will participate and will present information about the situation in the organization's responsibility area and about the items on the agenda.

Plans to equip the CSTO collective rapid response forces will be discussed as well as plans for the joint training of the collective security system forces and assets. A schedule of consultations about foreign policy, defense, and security in H2 2021 – H1 2022 will be discussed. A plan of events timed to the 30th anniversary since the Collective Security Treaty was signed and the 20th anniversary since the Collective Security Treaty Organization was established is also on the agenda.

Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon is expected to meet with the defense ministers and the secretaries of the security councils before the sessions.

The Collective Security Treaty was signed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 15 May 1992. At a session in Moscow on 14 May 2002 the Collective Security Council decided to convert mechanisms and structures of cooperation of the states parties to the Collective Security Treaty into an international regional organization – the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Collective Security Treaty Organization Charter came into force on 18 September 2003. The Collective Security Treaty Organization member states are Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Tajikistan presides over the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2021.