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CSTO member states set to make more effort to create potential to counter aggression

The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are set to make more effort to create a potential to collectively counter aggression, the presidents of the CSTO countries said in a statement adopted at a meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Moscow on Wednesday, BelaPAN said.

"Within the framework of military cooperation, particular attention will be given to the establishment of a potential for actively repulsing aggression and any other violent actions against member states," the statement said.

To achieve this goal, the member states will direct their efforts at further developing the forces and means of the collective security system and improving military-technical and military-economic cooperation.

"A protocol providing for the deployment of military infrastructure facilities in the territories of member states, which was signed by CSTO heads of state on December 20 last year will serve to strengthen the relations between the allied countries," the statement said.

The CSTO currently comprises Armenia, Belarus, Russia and three Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The Collective Security Treaty was signed in Uzbekistan`s capital of Tashkent on May 15, 1992 by Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus signed the treaty the following year.

The treaty was set to last for a five-year period unless extended. In 1999, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a protocol renewing the treaty for another five-year period, and Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan refused to sign it. At the same time Uzbekistan joined the GUAM group, established by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in 1997 and largely seen as intending to counter Russian dominance in the region.

In 2002, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan agreed to transform their collective security pact into an international organization called the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Alyaksandr Lukashenka then said that other military blocs, NATO in particular, would have to "reckon and cooperate" with this powerful alliance.

Uzbekistan became a full member of the CSTO in the summer of 2006 but suspended its membership in 2012.

The CSTO currently has observer status at the UN General Assembly.