MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Denunciation of the Treaty on Open Skies (TOS) leads to the collapse of the existing system of arms control, the Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Stanislav Zas, told the OSCE forum on Wednesday.

"The dismantling of the INF treaty and the launch of procedures to denounce the Treaty on Open Skies add to the erosion of the existing system of arms control," Zas said.

Alongside the general uneasy situation, the CSTO notes growing military and political threats in the East-European Region.

"Elements of a strategic missile defense and additional military units continue to be deployed near the borders of the CSTO member-states," he said.

Zas stressed that the residents of the whole of Greater Eurasia — from La Manche to Vladivostok — remained concerned over the way the security situation was developing.

"It has to be stated that the task of ensuring biosecurity has been added to the existing list of challenges and threats. Although certain successes have been achieved in the struggle against the coronavirus pandemic, the economic, social, and demographic effects it entails have a negative impact on the dynamic development of a large number of countries and complicate prospects for achieving lasting stability. We remain certain that the new challenges of today and the struggle against them will eventually become a factor for closer unity in the OSCE region," he said.

Zas recalled that at the recent meetings of the OSCE statutory bodies, it was stressed that no significant shifts in the sphere of global and regional security had been achieved yet.

"The prolongation of the New START treaty was a very significant but single positive episode in a general tense situation," he stated.

Keeping situation under control

The CSTO's secretary-general said that the organization managed to keep the situation within its area of responsibility under control in adverse conditions. "Coordination by the CSTO member-states on crucial foreign policy issues is growing. Joint statements by the Council of CSTO Foreign Ministers are an important element of such coordinated policies. At the latest meeting of CSTO foreign ministers in Dushanbe four such statements were adopted," Zas said.

He promised that the CSTO would be building up participation in global efforts to maintain peace and security and systematically press for the settlement of international and regional conflicts, armed ones in the first place, exclusively by peaceful political and diplomatic means within the framework of internationally recognized formats of negotiations and proceeding from universally recognized principles and norms of international law without any selectivity.

Taking part in the OSCE forum were permanent representatives from Armenia and Russia to the CSTO and also delegates from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the denunciation of the Treaty on Open Skies. The law was uploaded to the official portal of legal information on June 7.