At a meeting in Bishkek the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers approved a plan of collective action by the CSTO member states on implementing the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy for 2019-2021 and adopted an open appeal to the NATO foreign ministers

On May, 22, 2019 a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Collective Security Treaty Organization was held in Bishkek chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic Chingiz Aydarbekov. The meeting was attended by the CSTO Acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov. (Foto)

The meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO was held in a narrow and extended format. In the first part, an in-depth exchange of views was held on topical issues of international and regional security and issues of the Organization’s activities. The main focus was on enhancing the CSTO’s potential to influence negative trends in international affairs by using the political and diplomatic means at its disposal, and the Organization’s performance in the current conditions of its main task - strengthening peace, international and regional security.

The necessity was emphasized of actively using the mechanisms of public diplomacy to more fully convey to political and public circles timely and reliable information about the activities of the CSTO to effectively carry out its tasks.

In the sphere of coordinating the foreign policy activities of the CSTO member states, it should be noted that the List of joint statements was adopted in 2019, in which the Organization has in mind to fix and promote the agreed positions of the member states on major issues of the world and regional agendas.

During this meeting a Statement was adopted on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders, as well as the Open Appeal of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO member states to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the NATO member states on strengthening mutual trust and developing cooperation.

The first document notes the heroic role of the Belarusian people in Victory, strongly condemns any attempts to revise the assessment of the events of the Second World War and revise its results, calls upon all states and peoples to resist manifestations of neo-fascism and neo-Nazi ideology.

The second one proposes a set of measures to establish direct contacts between the general organizations of the two organizations, a dialogue between the Permanent Council of the CSTO and the North Atlantic Council, as well as the promotion of mutual participation as observers in military exercises in CSTO and NATO formats.

The Plan of Consultations of Representatives of the CSTO Member States on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense Issues for the second half of 2019 - the first half of 2020, which provides for a periodic exchange of views and assessments on a wide range of issues relating to all priority activities of the Organization, was approved.

In accordance with the principled position of the CSTO in favor of forming a broad international antiterrorist coalition, the Collective Action Plan of the CSTO member states to implement the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy for 2019 was approved and approved today, providing for close cooperation in improving the entire system of countering terrorist challenges and threats.

The decision of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO approved a list of additional measures aimed at reducing tensions in the Tajik-Afghan border area. ” The purpose of this document is to ensure stability and security at the southern borders of the zone of responsibility of the Collective Security Treaty, and more generally, to enhance coordination of the activities of the CSTO member states in the Central Asian region of collective security.

The ministers of foreign affairs of the CSTO member states approved the Regulations for Informational Interaction of the Organization's Crisis Response Center with authorized national authorities, which will significantly improve the system for responding to crisis situations in a format.

The Council of Foreign Ministers decided to submit the candidacy of Zas Stanislav Vasilyevich, currently the State Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus, to the CSTO Collective Security Council for the post of Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization for a three-year term from 1 January 2020.

It was also decided to instruct the Permanent Council and the CSTO Secretariat to develop proposals for amending the Regulation on the CSTO Secretariat.

In total the agenda of the CSTO CFM meeting included 9 issues, which were all successfully addressed. 

(Foto)

The Collective Security Treaty (CST) was signed on May 15, 1992 in Tashkent. On May 14, 2002, the Collective Security Council at a session in Moscow decided to transform the mechanisms and cooperation structures of the CST member states into an international regional organization - the “Collective Security Treaty Organization”, giving it an appropriate status. September 18, 2003. The CSTO Charter entered into force. The Collective Security Treaty Organization includes: the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan.