MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Many southern and eastern partners are sending signals about their eagerness to cooperate with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said at a conference dubbed ‘Collective Security in a New Era: Experiences and Prospects of the CSTO,’ hosted by the Valdai International Discussion Club on Wednesday.
"This is the reason why I believe that the CSTO should be relevant not only for us, CSTO members. The CSTO should be also relevant on the international stage in a broader sense. Many of our partners are sending signals about their willingness to cooperate. They are mostly our southern and eastern partners," Pankin pointed out.
"It’s time for our western partners to also think about it not as a toy but as a real multi-faceted military, political and defense organization that keeps tabs on developments and takes note of changes," the diplomat added.
Besides, according to the Russian deputy foreign minister, it is an organization made up of six countries who are neighbors to one another and "are bound by historic ties and share a high level of mutual understanding." "The crucial thing is to prevent attempts to drive a wedge between us with regard to the issues on which we may have contradictions and differences as any neighbors who have been living together for a long time may have," the diplomat emphasized.