On 13 February, a traditional meeting was held in Moscow between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and the chairs of the parliamentary committees (commissions) of the CSTO member states responsible for international relations, defense and security. CSTO Secretary General Talatbek Masadykov and ambassadors of the Organization’s member states also took part in the event.
CSTO Secretary General Talatbek Masadykov addressed the Fifth meeting of the chairs of the parliamentary committees (commissions) of the CSTO member states responsible for international relations, defense and security.
Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the CSTO Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils (CSSC) Sergey Shoigu gave an extensive interview to the Interfax news agency, in which he commented on the key areas of the Organization’s activities in 2026.
On 12 February, a briefing was held at the CSTO Crisis Response Center by Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel General Andrey Nikolaevich Serdyukov on the topic “Results of the joint training of command and control bodies and forces of the CSTO collective security system in 2025 and tasks for 2026.”
The CSTO is holding a strategic command-staff training
17.03.2025
From 17 to 20 March 2025, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is holding a strategic command-staff training of the CSTO Joint Staff, the CSTO Secretariat and interested ministries and departments of the CSTO member states under the charge of Colonel-General Andrei Serdyukov, Chief of the Joint Staff.
The Chief of the Joint Staff, Colonel General Andrei Serdyukov, noted that “the strategic command-staff training is a planned and key event in the system of joint training of our Organization in 2025. It is not directed against any specific states and military alliances and has the main purpose of improving the procedure for the joint work of the functional groups of the Crisis Response Centre and the operational groups of states in assessing the situation in the regions of collective security and preparing proposals and draft decisions of the CSTO's statutory bodies on the formation and deployment of components of the Troops (Collective Forces)”.
In accordance with the plan, the strategic command-staff training is being conducted in three stages, during which it is planned to work in sequence on the preparation of collective decisions on the formation and deployment of all components of the Organization's military component.
The Joint Staff and Secretariat were notified and assembled. Measures have been taken to deploy the Crisis Response Centre and the control points of the national bodies authorized to interact with it.
This year, for the first time, the task force of the Anti-Terrorist Center of the CIS member states, as well as representatives of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat as observers will take part in the training.
The first stage will deal with the tasks of preventing a crisis situation in the Eastern European region of collective security. It is planned to work out the preparation of proposals and draft decisions by the Organization's bodies on the formation and operational deployment of the CSTO's Collective Rapid Reaction Forces; in addition, issues relating to the provision of military-technical assistance will be worked out.
In the course of the second stage, it is planned to work out the tasks of preventing a crisis situation in the Central Asian region of collective security, providing for working out the issues of preparing proposals and developing collective decisions on the formation and deployment of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Central Asian region and providing military and technical assistance.
At the third stage, it is planned to work out tasks in preparation for a peacekeeping operation in the territory of a simulated CSTO member state created to use the Organization's peacekeeping potential, within the borders of the Khotlon region of the Republic of Tajikistan.
This year, for the first time, it is planned to work on the formation and deployment of a joint NBC protection and medical support of the Organization to ensure biosecurity of a peacekeeping operation.
It should also be noted that, in implementing the agreements on practical cooperation between the CSTO and the CIS Counter-Terrorism Centre, it is planned to combine the active phases of the CSTO Peacekeeping Force's “Indestructible Brotherhood” training in 2025 with a joint counter-terrorism training of the competent authorities of the CIS member states, which is also planned on the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Each stage concludes with the consideration of 10 draft decisions developed by the Organization's bodies on issues related to the formation and deployment of troop components, the financial support of groupings and the provision of military and technical assistance to states.
At the end of the strategic command-staff training, all the draft decisions of the CSTO bodies will be communicated to the states as source data for the development of planning documents for the joint and special trainings to be held in the Organization's format in September-October of this year in the territories of the Republic of Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan.
