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Post-Soviet security bloc suggests CSTO, NATO establish dialogue

The Councils of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) member states are holding their sessions in Bishkek

BISHKEK, May 22. /TASS/. Foreign ministers from the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) suggested in their open address to their counterparts from NATO countries to establish contacts between the organizations’ coordinating bodies and observers’ joint participation in military drills, according to a statement circulated by the CSTO Secretariat on Wednesday.

"We are offering a set of measures to establish direct contacts between the general bodies of the two organizations and a dialogue between the CSTO Standing Council and the North Atlantic Council, and also assistance in providing for mutual participation of observers in military drills in the CSTO and NATO format," the document says.

The Councils of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) member states are holding their sessions in Bishkek on Wednesday. The Russian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The CSTO is an international security organization that involves six countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan took over the CSTO chairmanship from Kazakhstan in November 2018.

The SCO member-countries are Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia have the observer status. Six countries - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka - are the SCO’s dialogue partners.