BOCHAROV RUCHEI, Sochi, September 15 (Itar-Tass) —— The Eurasian Economic Community is an international economic organisation. Its functions include the formation of common external customs borders for its member countries and the development of common foreign economic, tariff and price policies and other elements required for the functioning of a common market.
The treaty establishing the EurAsEC was signed on October 10, 2000 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Five states have been members of the Community since its inception: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan became a member of EurAsEc in January 2006 (it suspended its membership at the end of 2008). In May 2002, Moldova and Ukraine were granted observer status. In 2003, Armenia joined the EurAsEc as an observer.
The EurAsEC’s governing bodies include the Interstate Council, the Integration Committee, the Interparliamentary Assembly, and the Community’s Court of Justice.
The EurAsEc has observer status in the UN General Assembly.
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation is currently made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The Organisation’s objectives are strengthening peace, international and regional security and stability, and the collective protection of freedom, territorial integrity, and sovereignty of its member-states, to be achieved first and foremost through political means.
On May 15, 1992, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan signed the Tashkent Collective Security Treaty (CST). Azerbaijan signed the treaty on September 24, 1993, Georgia on September 9, 1993, and Belarus on December 31, 1993.
The treaty entered into force on April 20, 1994 for a term of five years, with the possibility of an extension. On April 2, 1999, the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed a protocol to extend the treaty for further five years. However, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan declined the treaty extension.
It was decided at the Moscow session of the CST on May 14, 2002, to convert the CST into a full-fledged international organisation: the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).
On December 2, 2004, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution granting the CSTO observer status.
On August 16, 2006, a resolution was signed in Sochi to restore Uzbekistan’s CSTO membership.
The Organisation’s supreme body is the Collective Security Council (CSC) consisting of the heads of the Organisation’s member-states.
Its permanent body is the Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General appointed by the CSC from among citizens of the member-states and reporting to the Council.