On October 7, 2026, the Fourth Counter-Terrorism Forum opened in Minsk (Republic of Belarus), bringing together the CIS Conference on Countering Terrorism and Extremism, the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure international scientific and practical conference, and joint counter-terrorism exercises.
October 7 marks the 24th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which formalized the establishment of the CSTO as an international regional organization. The goals set out in the document, including strengthening peace and stability and collectively protecting the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the member states, remain the foundation for developing mutually beneficial, truly allied cooperation. On this basis, the Russian Federation is chairing the CSTO in 2026 under the motto “Collective security in a multipolar world: a common goal, shared responsibility.”
From October 18 to 23 this year, a special exercise codenamed “Cobalt-2026” will be held in the Republic of Tajikistan.
Today, the active phase of the command-and-staff exercise with the Collective Operational Reaction Forces (CORF) of the CSTO “Interaction-2026” and the special exercises “Search-2026” and “Echelon-2026” concluded in the Russian Federation.
The Working Group on Afghanistan under the CSTO Ministerial Council discussed the security threats to the CSTO member states coming from the territory of the IRA
On April 23, 2019, a meeting of the Working Group on Afghanistan under The Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO was held in Moscow with the participation of Deputy Secretary General of the CSTO Alymbay Sultanov and national coordinators for Afghanistan chaired by the National Coordinator of the Kyrgyz Republic for Afghanistan Turatbek Dzhunushaliyev.
A delegation of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, headed by Deputy Director of the RATS SCO Executive Committee Liu Jie, also took part in the meeting of the Working Group.
Issues related to the military-political situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, threats to the security of the CSTO member states coming from the territory of this country were discussed. The unpredictability of the development of the domestic political situation in the country, the continuation of hostilities and terrorist activities of the Taliban movement, ISIS and other extremist organizations in Afghanistan, the absence of real prerequisites for the early launch of the internal Afghan peace process, despite efforts to establish direct contacts between official Kabul and the movement Taliban. It was noted that there is a tendency to transfer instability from the south to the north of the country, the continuing threat of the export of terrorism and extremism to the CSTO zone of responsibility.
The need to continue the process of consolidating the efforts of the CSTO member states in the Afghan sector within the Organization, on a bilateral basis and in the format of specialized international platforms was stressed.
The progress in the implementation of the Working Group's Work Plan for the first half of 2019 has been analyzed, and the Work Plan for the second half of 2019 has been reviewed and approved.
A working meeting between the CSTO Deputy Secretary General A.Sultanov and the Deputy Director of the RATS SCO Executive Committee Liu Jie took place on the sidelines of the meeting. The sides discussed issues of further development of cooperation between the CSTO Secretariat and the RATS SCO in the field of countering terrorism and extremism.
The next meeting of the Working Group on Afghanistan under The Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO is scheduled to be held in the second half of 2019.
CSTO press secretary Vladimir Zainetdinov
+ 7495-795-27-10,
+ 7495-621-33-23-tel / fax