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Military and political situation in Eastern Europe deteriorating — CSTO chief

The situation is deteriorating day by day, according to CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha

MINSK, December 21. /TASS/. The Military Committee of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has noted the aggravation of the military and political situation in the Eastern European region and Central Asia, CSTO Secretary General, Nikolai Bordyuzha, told reporters after the committee’s meeting on Wednesday.

The chiefs of staff and members of the Military Committee paid considerable attention to the military and political situation, which is deteriorating day by day," the BelTA Belarusian news agency quoted him as saying.

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Stoltenberg says Russia, NATO ready to continue dialogue despite remaining differences

"We can see NATO’s maneuvers close to our borders," Bordyuzha noted. "Of course, this requires our attention. So is the assessment of the situation in the Central Asian region with due account for the Afghan factor," he said.

The CSTO secretary general added that the participants in the meeting in Minsk discussed the approaches towards certain phenomena in the military and political situation. "I believe all this will give us grounds for further work to improve the collective security system focusing on the new elements in the military and political situation, which emerge in both Eastern Europe and the Central Asian region," Bordyuzha noted.

He added that the work of the CSTO Crisis Response Center that will involve Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia will be tested next year. "The issue at hand is ensuring continuous interaction with countries in exchanging information, holding closed-door video conferences and evaluating the situation in a particular region," Bordyuzha said.

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