The CSTO Collective Security Council in Bishkek at its November 28 session adopted a Statement on interaction and cooperation to strengthen international and regional security, approved the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Implementation Plan

On November 28, this year, In Bishkek, a session of the Collective Security Council (CSC) of the Collective Security Treaty Organization chaired by the President of Kyrgyzstan was held. CSC was attended by: Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbai Jeenbekov, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon. The meeting was attended by the CSTO Acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov. (Photo from Session)

A number of issues, in particular, discussion of the problems of international and regional security and the situation in the CSTO area of responsibility, members of the Collective Security Council discussed in private session. The CSC plenary meeting was held with the participation of foreign ministers, defense ministers and secretaries of security councils of the CSTO member states.

On the eve, on November 27, a joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the Organization was also held, during which the Statement of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO member states on efforts to stabilize the situation in the Middle East and North Africa was adopted and the agenda of the session of the Collective Security Council, which includes more than 20 issues, was approved.

Opening the session, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbai Jeebekov, chairing the CSC meeting, said that, as part of the Kyrgyz presidency, the Collective Security Treaty Organization was actively working to increase the organization’s international stature. He informed that the legalization of the CSTO Crisis Response Center was completed, concrete steps had been taken to implement the goals in the field of military, military-economic and military-technical cooperation.

“We conducted a number of major trainings, in particular, the first special training “ Echelon ”was held in Russia. The joint trainings “ Indestructible Brotherhood ”in the Republic of Tajikistan and“ Interaction ”in Russia were held. As a result, coherence was achieved between the armed forces of the CSTO member states and their combat readiness was increased , "Sooronbai Jeenbekov said.

According to him, work was actively carried out to increase the defense potential of the CSTO and to improve military cooperation and the fight against drug trafficking.

“At the "Edelweiss" training ground in the Kyrgyz Republic, a tactical and special training“ Thunder ”was held, the President of Kyrgyzstan noted.

Sooronbai Jeenbekov added that cooperation with other international and regional structures is expanding. Operative cooperation also continues on the issues of identifying, preventing and suppressing the use of information and communication technologies for terrorist and extremist purposes. “The tasks of forming a common anti-terrorism space within the Organization are being fulfilled,” he noted.

“In general, it can be stated that the plans of the Kyrgyz Republic during the period of its chairmanship in the CSTO were successfully implemented,” the head of the Kyrgyz Republic summed up.

The CSTO Acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov in his speech expressed great gratitude to the leadership of the Kyrgyz Republic, President of the Kyrgyz Republic  Sooronbai Sharipovich Jeenbekov for the excellent organization of the session of the Collective Security Council and meetings of statutory bodies and noted that during the period of the Kyrgyz Republic’s chairmanship in the CSTO, all were successfully implemented Kyrgyz priorities outlined.

Speaking on the problems of international and regional security and assessing the military-political situation in the CSTO area of responsibility, Valery Semerikov said that the activities of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the past period were carried out in a complex, unstable international military-political situation.

“The degradation of international arms control treaty mechanisms continues. According to him, conflicts in the Middle East continue to threaten the transfer of terrorism and extremism to other countries and regions.

“The really increased risks of hotbeds of tension and direct military conflicts in the regions adjacent to the Organization’s area of responsibility require the CSTO member states to constantly increase their collective efforts to improve the collective security system,” Valery Semerikov stated.

On this basis, the Collective Security Council adopted an important Statement on improving international interaction and cooperation in order to strengthen global and regional security, which should emphasize the fundamental principles of the Organization and express the Organization’s position on the main problems of international security.

Valery Semerikov noted that in Central Asia, Afghanistan remains a territory of instability and a source of an immediate threat to security for the CSTO member states. The increase in drug production against the background of a not decreasing intensity of internal political confrontation in this country aggravates the scale of the terrorist danger emanating from its territory.

“One of the most important issues that was discussed today is the situation on the Tajik-Afghan border,” V. Semerikov said. As I have already noted, the situation in the adjacent territories in Afghanistan is very disturbing there; militant forces, including ISIL, continue to accumulate. Today there are already several tens of thousands of them. ”

Therefore, the CSTO Collective Security Council approved a List of additional measures aimed at reducing tension in the Tajik-Afghan border. It contains a set of measures to increase the effectiveness of joint counteraction to extremist, terrorist and drug threats emanating from the territory of Afghanistan.

Also, by the Decision of the Collective Security Council, a Collective Action Plan of the CSTO member states on the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy for 2019-2021 was adopted, providing for close cooperation in improving the entire system of countering terrorist challenges and threats. It was developed on the basis of the CSTO's principled position on the formation of a broad international anti-terrorism coalition and taking into account the recommendations contained in the Resolutions of the UN General Assembly.

The CSC approved an action plan to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. It envisages the preparation and conduct of a number of organizational measures, including the participation of military personnel of the member states of the Organization in a military parade in Moscow on May 9.

The CSC adopted decisions regarding amendments to the CSTO regulatory legal acts: the Regulation on the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as well as the Rules of Procedure of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. In particular, these changes specify the procedure for introducing and coordinating the candidacy for the position of the Secretary General, as well as replacing his post in case it is impossible to fulfill his duties. The new edition of some paragraphs of these documents provides for the participation of the head of government of a member state in the CSTO Collective Security Council.

During the session, close attention was paid to strengthening the military component of the Collective Security Treaty Organization collective security system. The need for further improvement of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces) command and control system was noted.

Last year, the main efforts in this area were aimed at optimizing and further developing the components of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Troops (Collective Forces), their comprehensive support, management and preparation for the fulfillment of their mission. The CSTO Crisis Response Center (CKR) was effectively functioning. This year the CSTO got up, which is called “combat duty”, it is connected to communication and information exchange systems through closed communication channels with the National Defense Management Center of the Russian Federation, as well as similar centers of other countries of the CSTO member states.

In the interests of increasing the combat potential of the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces of the CSTO, the capabilities of the CSTO member states to optimize their composition have been worked out.

Work continued on integrating the CSTO peacekeeping potential into UN international peacekeeping activity, taking into account the corresponding Roadmap for the period 2017-2020.

Valery Semerikov noted that 5 trainings were held in 2019. “This is a joint training "Interaction-2019" with the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces on the territory of the Russian Federation, “Indestructible Brotherhood-2019” with the Peacekeeping Forces - in the Republic of Tajikistan in 20 km from the Afghan border, a search with intelligence units "Search-2019" in the Republic of Belarus, and an anti-drug training of special forces from the KSOR - "Thunder-2019", held in the Kyrgyz Republic. This year, the "Echelon-2019" training was held for the first time with logistical support units to provide the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces of the CSTO in the Russian Federation, ”said the Acting Secretary General.

All exercises and trainings were interlinked by goals, objectives, place and time and were carried out as part of the joint operational-strategic training“Combat Brotherhood-2019”. In the course of these training, the practice of joint training of command and control bodies and the formation of forces and means of the collective security system was continued against a single background of the development of the military-political and military-strategic situation. This allowed us to work out in a logical sequence the whole complex of tasks to prevent, resolve a military conflict and post-conflict settlement. For its implementation, an operational-strategic task was developed, providing for the use of Troops (Collective Forces) in the East European and Central Asian regions of collective security.

With this in mind, the Ministers of Defense and the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the Member States signed the Combat Training Plan for the governing bodies and formations of forces and means of the collective security system for 2020.

A number of decisions were also taken on issues related to countering security challenges and threats.

The session participants were informed about the results of the operation carried out for the first time this year under the code name “Mercenary” - this is a set of operational and preventive measures to block the recruitment, entry / exit channels for citizens of the Organization's member states to participate in terrorist activities and neutralize their resource base in space CSTO.

Based on the results of the operation, mechanisms for interaction between the special and law enforcement agencies of the CSTO member states in the field of countering international terrorism and extremism in a number of areas, such as countering the recruitment activities and participation of citizens of the CSTO member states in international terrorist organizations, have been worked out and improved; the identification and suppression of cases of propaganda of extremist ideology and the recruitment of new members of terrorist and extremist organizations using information technology; the identification and closure of terrorist financing channels.

The members of the CSC were informed of the results of the activities as part of the ongoing operations in the CSTO format of the “Channel” and “Illegal” operations. In total, in 2019, the competent authorities of the states participating in the operation “Channel” confiscated more than 29.1 tons of drugs, as well as 546 firearms and over 8 thousand ammunition.

The CSTO regional operation to combat illegal migration "Illegal" took place in three stages and included measures to monitor compliance by foreign citizens with migration laws, measures were taken to strengthen the protection of state borders and control the border regime. A set of operational-search measures was carried out to identify among foreign citizens persons involved in terrorist activities, as well as to curb the criminal activities of the organizers of illegal migration channels.

As a result of the operation “Illegal-2019”, more than 159 thousand violations of migration laws were stopped, 6,738 criminal cases were instituted for organizing illegal migration, 1,342 people on the international wanted list were detained, and administrative fines of about $ 7.5 million were imposed.

The Collective Security Council signed a number of decisions that relate to the organization and conduct of research and development work within the framework of the CSTO, the introduction of the necessary changes to the regulatory framework governing the PROXI operation; issues of legal and financial and economic support. The Heads of states approved the Organization’s budget for 2020 in the amount of about 420 million rubles.

Given that in 2019 - 2020 the chairmanship of the Organization passed to the Russian Federation, the head of state, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, presented to CSC Russia's priorities for the period of her chairmanship in the CSTO during the next intersessional period. The Chairmanship of the CSC passed to the President of Russia.

The members of the CSTO Collective Security Council congratulated Stanislav Vasilyevich Zas (currently the Secretary of State for the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus) on his appointment as Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization on January 1, 2020.

In total, during the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, 17 documents were signed. A protocol decision was also made to hold the next session of the CSTO CSC on the territory of the Russian Federation in the second half of 2020.

____________________________________________________

Пресс-секретарь ОДКБ    Владимир Зайнетдинов

+7-495-795-27-10

+7-495-621-33-23-тел/факс

Эл.почта: odkb-pressa@gov.ru