Ex-Soviet bloc sets up joint forces
Representatives of five former Soviet republics
represented in a security group have agreed to set up collective
prompt-response forces.
Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the Russia-dominated bloc CIS, signed a relevant agreement at a summit in Moscow on Sunday. Belarus and Uzbekistan, the remaining two CSTO members, did not ink the agreement.
The document aims to defend the territorial integrity, sovereignty and security of the signatories. The joint forces are to include mobile military units supplied with up-to-date weaponry and military machinery. The collective forces are to remain in their national territories during peacetime but could be engaged otherwise on a decision of the CSTO Council.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the CSTO meeting that the collective forces should be such that they will be reckoned with.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had refused to visit Moscow in protest at recent Russian restrictions on his country`s dairy goods. Minsk deems any CSTO documents signed without its participation as illegitimate and points out that, under the group`s bylaws, any such papers are to be signed upon consensus of all member states.
Tashkent explained its refusal with the lack of a clause in the agreement that rules out the involvement of the collective forces in conflicts among CSTO member states.
Nonetheless, President Medvedev does not see Belarusian and Uzbek refusals to co-sign the document as dramatic.
"Other, similar organizations have not shaped up overnight either," he said, voicing hope that the two countries would reconsider the issue and follow suit.
CSTO chairmanship was initially to be transferred from Armenia to Belarus at the meeting, but, since the latter did not attend, it was temporarily passed on to Russia.
The meeting participants did not touch upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh. However, Nikolay Bordyuzha, the CSTO Secretary General, assured earlier that the collective forces, which are aimed at averting a number of threats facing the participating states, will definitely not be engaged in the settlement of conflicts flaring in the ex-Soviet states, including the Garabagh problem.
The Collective Security Treaty was signed in May 1992 by Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Later Belarus and Uzbekistan joined the Treaty, which turned into an international organization called CSTO in 2002. Most ex-Soviet countries, including Azerbaijan, have not joined the organization.
Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the Russia-dominated bloc CIS, signed a relevant agreement at a summit in Moscow on Sunday. Belarus and Uzbekistan, the remaining two CSTO members, did not ink the agreement.
The document aims to defend the territorial integrity, sovereignty and security of the signatories. The joint forces are to include mobile military units supplied with up-to-date weaponry and military machinery. The collective forces are to remain in their national territories during peacetime but could be engaged otherwise on a decision of the CSTO Council.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the CSTO meeting that the collective forces should be such that they will be reckoned with.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had refused to visit Moscow in protest at recent Russian restrictions on his country`s dairy goods. Minsk deems any CSTO documents signed without its participation as illegitimate and points out that, under the group`s bylaws, any such papers are to be signed upon consensus of all member states.
Tashkent explained its refusal with the lack of a clause in the agreement that rules out the involvement of the collective forces in conflicts among CSTO member states.
Nonetheless, President Medvedev does not see Belarusian and Uzbek refusals to co-sign the document as dramatic.
"Other, similar organizations have not shaped up overnight either," he said, voicing hope that the two countries would reconsider the issue and follow suit.
CSTO chairmanship was initially to be transferred from Armenia to Belarus at the meeting, but, since the latter did not attend, it was temporarily passed on to Russia.
The meeting participants did not touch upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh. However, Nikolay Bordyuzha, the CSTO Secretary General, assured earlier that the collective forces, which are aimed at averting a number of threats facing the participating states, will definitely not be engaged in the settlement of conflicts flaring in the ex-Soviet states, including the Garabagh problem.
The Collective Security Treaty was signed in May 1992 by Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Later Belarus and Uzbekistan joined the Treaty, which turned into an international organization called CSTO in 2002. Most ex-Soviet countries, including Azerbaijan, have not joined the organization.
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