Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A meeting of heads of member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was held in Moscow on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, as well as the organization's Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha.

There were 20 issues on the agenda.

One of them was Uzbekistan's appeal to leave the CSTO. Its appeal was adopted and Uzbekistan has officially stopped its participation in the CSTO.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that "there will be no easy terms" for Uzbekistan if it wants to rejoin the group at a later date.

In late June, Uzbekistan sent a note to the CSTO Secretariat to suspend its participation in the organization.

Uzbekistan has left the Collective Security Treaty Organization once in 1999, when the country did not prolong the contract with the organization. In 2006, Tashkent restored membership.

Touching upon the participation of the CSTO at UN peacemaking operations, Lukashenko said that the regional security group should be involved in at least one such operation.

He noted that the CSTO has a potential for strengthening cooperation with international organizations such as the UN, OSCE and NATO.

"It is necessary to develop participation at peacemaking operations under UN auspices. It will not only strengthen the relations between the CSTO and UN Secretariat, but also give the CSTO experience of providing joint operations for peacemaking," president added.

In his speech, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon mentioned that a number of documents, that were signed within the CSTO have not practically yielded results.

Rahmon also said the mass media of the member states is not aware of information priorities of the organization.

A number of documents were signed at the end of the session.

Leaders of the CSTO member-states adopted a document "about main directions of development of military cooperation between the CSTO member-states for a period till 2020."

The sides also signed an agreement about predictions on the development of Afghanistan.

Heads of the member-states also decided to make changes to the protocol about the CSTO military contingent of prompt response forces.

Kyrgyzstan received the Presidency of the CSTO from Kazakhstan and the next joint meeting of the Council of Defense and Foreign Ministers of the CSTO and Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the member countries will be held in Bishkek in 2013.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization was established based on the Collective Security Treaty, signed on May 15, 1992 by the CIS member countries.