MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) leaders declared their readiness for interaction with NATO on the principles of indivisible security. The declaration was made in a statement, which marked the 20th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 10th anniversary of the organization.
“Being aware of our responsibility for lasting peace in the Euro-Atlantic region, we confirm our readiness to start practical interaction with NATO on the principles of indivisible security,” the document runs.
“We are particularly concerned about the exacerbating situation in Afghanistan, which borders on the CSTO zone of responsibility. We proceed from the premise that the achievement of peace and stability in Afghanistan is a key factor of regional and international security. We advocate the development of Afghanistan as a peaceful, prosperous, independent and neutral state,” it said.
The CSTO member states also defined their attitude to the U.S. missile defense. “Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization affirm that the unilateral deployment of strategic missile defense systems by one state or a group of states without due account of lawful interests of other countries and without legally binding guarantees may harm international security and strategic stability in Europe and the world at large,” the document says.
“In the period since the signing of the treaty, international relations have been frequently witnessing tensions,” the CSTO leaders said. “We are seriously concerned about the growing trend towards military interference in crises. We are also concerned about attempts to act in evasion of international legal norms and principles and to make use of temporary problems of certain countries and peoples.”
“The treaty signed in Tashkent in 1992 duly performs it main function of an instrument of the provision of security, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of its member states. Our efforts aimed to strengthen the treaty and to adapt it to the modern geopolitical situation have resulted in the intensification of military-political cooperation and the suppression of new threats and challenges,” the document says.
“The CSTO established in 2002 brought the cooperation of its member states to a new level of the allied relationship,” the document says. “The organization is transforming into a multi-role structure providing security and stability and the sphere of its activity is spreading into the suppression of terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal arms trade and organized transnational crime, as well as peacekeeping, prevention and cleanup of emergency situations, and others.”
“Having the necessary military potential for the provision of security and stability of member states, the organization gives the priority to political instruments in the settlement of the tasks it is facing. We are satisfied with our enlarged interaction on the international scene, and the upgrading foreign political coordination in main issues of global and regional agendas,” the document says.
It noted the intensified cooperation between the CSTO and the UN and other international and regional organizations and the work “on the modalities of the organization’s involvement in collective peacekeeping efforts.”
The CSTO chiefs of state noted that the organization “had made a number of important decisions aimed at further upgrading of the organization activity and higher efficiency.” “The earlier agreements promote the strengthening of the collective response to a broad range of traditional and new threats to security and stability,” the document said.