On July 14, 2026, a working meeting was held at the CSTO Secretariat between CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov and UN Assistant Secretary-General Alexander Zuev.
From July 7 to 9, second staff talks were held in the Russian Federation on the organization and conduct of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (CRRF) command-and-staff exercise “Interaction-2026”, the special reconnaissance exercise “Poisk-2026”, and the logistics support exercise “Echelon-2026”.
In accordance with the 2026 Action Plan of the Coordinating Council of Heads of the Competent Authorities for Countering Illicit Drug Trafficking of the CSTO Member States, and as part of the Russian Federation's priorities during its 2026 CSTO Chairmanship, the sub-regional counter-narcotics operation “Kanal – Amber Coast” was conducted from June 29 to July 3, 2026. The operation was aimed at disrupting trafficking routes for narcotic drugs, their precursors and analogues, new psychoactive substances, and potent substances into the CSTO area of responsibility, neutralizing international transnational drug trafficking groups, dismantling clandestine drug production facilities, undermining the economic foundations of the drug trade, including the laundering of drug proceeds.
The 12th Southern Information Security Forum “Infoforum Sochi 2026” is taking place in Sochi, Russia, from June 30 to July 3. On July 1, the Forum's plenary session brought together representatives of federal and regional authorities, regulatory bodies, leading companies, and international organizations to discuss current challenges in the protection of critical infrastructure, the development of artificial intelligence, and international cooperation.
On June 30 – July 1, 2026, Saint Petersburg hosted a series of events chaired by Alexander Kurenkov, Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, with the participation of heads of the competent authorities of the CSTO member states responsible for emergency prevention and response.
The CSTO Deputy Secretary General Piotr Tsikhanouski took part in the OSCE Annual Security Review Conference, which was held in Vienna from June 25-27
27.06.2019
On June 25 - 27 of this year the regular OSCE Annual Security Review Conference was held in Vienna. This year, its theme was defined as “In the name of people, dialogue and stability - strengthening comprehensive security in the OSCE region”.
The meeting brought together representatives of diplomatic departments and research centers of the majority of 57 states participating in this largest regional international organization and 11 states of its partners, as well as officials of relevant international organizations to discuss topical issues and challenges in the field of security and the role that the OSCE could play to overcome that problems.
The conference was opened by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Slovak Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák. Then, in the course of six meetings, the participants thoroughly discussed various aspects of security and stability in the region. The delegation of the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization headed by its Deputy Secretary General Piotr Tsikhanouski took an active part in the work of the Conference.
The head of the CSTO delegation spoke at a meeting on the control of non-nuclear weapons and confidence- and security-building measures, stating with concern that the military-political situation in the OSCE region continues to evolve in a negative scenario. In this regard, he drew the attention of the Conference participants to the Open Appeal to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Strengthening Mutual Confidence and Development of Cooperation, adopted by the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO on May 22, 2019. Recalling the content of the document, in which the ministers, guided by the provisions of the OSCE Security Platform, call on the heads of diplomatic departments of NATO member states to take a number of concrete joint steps as a matter of priority, Piotr Tsikhanouski asked his colleagues to help start such a constructive dialogue.
The CSTO Deputy Secretary General also spoke at a meeting on transnational threats. He informed the participants of the meeting about the painstaking daily work carried out in the Organization’s format in the priority direction for it to combat all types of contemporary challenges and threats, including terrorism and related extremism, drug and arms trafficking, cross-border organized crime, illegal migration, the use of information telecommunications technology for criminal purposes. The successful development of cooperation in resolving these tasks between the CSTO and the OSCE, the needs for further efforts to create a broad antiterrorist front of all international and regional specialized organizations with a central coordinating role of the UN was noted.
Interviews on the Conference confirmed the growing understanding in the international expert community of this consistently conducted CSTO line, the prospects of the Organization’s efforts to improve the dialogue aimed at strengthening security and stability in the region at the OSCE sites.
