CSTO representatives to consider military development prospects, Tajik presidency priorities

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. A meeting of the foreign ministers, defense ministers and security council secretaries of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will be held in the Russian capital Moscow on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The meeting participants will focus on discussing Tajikistan’s presidency in the organization in 2015, as well as prospects of further development of the CSTO military component. “In connection with the transition of CSTO charter bodies presidency from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Tajikistan, special attention will be paid to priorities of the Tajik presidency of the organization,” the ministry said. Besides, the participants of the meeting will consider a draft statement by heads of state, a number of documents prepared for the meeting of the Collective Security Council (CSC) and will discuss some organizational and administrative-financial issues of the CSTO operation. Among other issues on the agenda of the joint meeting are further perfection of the collective security system, foreign policy integration, development of military cooperation, allied interaction within the framework of the CSTO, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The Russian Defense Ministry explained that at today’s meeting on Foreign Ministry premises, “delegations of the participating countries will discuss proposals to improve the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces of the CSTO and Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Central Asian region of collective security.” “The meeting participants will consider the issue of establishing CSTO Collective Aviation Forces. They are also expected to approve a plan of joint events of operational ad combat training for 2015,” it said. The meeting will also sum up Russia’s CSTO presidency in 2014, discuss the state of the crisis response system in light of global and regional security challenges and will determine tasks of the organization for 2015. The agenda also includes issues of further development of cooperation between the CSTO member states in the military-economic sphere and improvement of operation of the Interstate Commission on Military and Economic Cooperation of the CSTO, the Defense Ministry said. The meeting of the CSTO’s Collective Security Council during which Russia will hand over its presidency to Tajikistan will be held in Moscow on December 23. The CSTO comprises six countries - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia. Read more