Leaders of CSTO start talks in narrow format in Dushanbe

DUSHANBE, September 15. /TASS/. The official program of the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russia-led military alliance of former Soviet states, began in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders of the six-member organization, also consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, arrived at the Palace of Nations in Dushanbe and started talks in a narrow format after attending a photo ceremony. The summit will later continue with the participation of delegations. More than ten joint documents are due to be signed at the event, including the leaders’ statement on key approaches to the current international agenda. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said earlier the statement would reflect concern over an increasing number of new challenges and threats and would underline readiness of the CSTO countries to intensify measures aimed at settlement of regional and international problems and at greater coordination in foreign policies and in the whole system of collective security. The summit is due to discuss the CSTO activity alongside key regional and global issues, including the increased activity of terrorist and extremist groups and the situation in general along the CSTO countries’ borders. Prior to the meeting of presidents in Dushanbe, a joint session of the Councils of Foreign Ministers and of the Defence Ministers and the Committee of the secretaries of the CSTO Defence Council took place. On Monday evening, the CSTO leaders met over a traditional informal dinner on the summit eve. On Tuesday morning, the Russian president held talks with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon. Putin’s two-day visit to Dushanbe ended with the bilateral meeting with Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev. The Collective Security Treaty was signed in 1992 and the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising Russia and former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was established ten years later. The organization’s top priorities are "strengthening of peace, international and regional security and stability, protection of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of its member states". After the summit, Armenia will take over the one-year presidency of the CSTO. Read more