MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan and director of the Russian foreign ministry’s second Asia department, Zamir Kabulov, has called on the member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led post-Soviet security bloc, not to lose vigilance in the light of the situation at the Tajik-Afghan border and in Afghanistan’s northern provinces.
"The situation both at the Afghan-Tajik border and along Afghanistan’s entire northern border, and on the territory of all northern provinces of that country is the focus of our attention. We think it wrong to indulge in excessive alarmism at this point. The security situation there is generally under the control of the new authorities," he said in an interview with TASS.
"At the same time, we are always ready for various scenarios, even the most unfavorable ones. Our allies in the CSTO, the organization that has recently demonstrated itself as the best stability guarantor in Central Asia, should stay calm and continue its laborious work, keeping their heads cool and powder dry," he stressed.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmov said at an online extraordinary meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council on January 10 that according to Tajik intelligence services, more than 40 terrorists’ camps and training centers holding more than 6,000 militants are located in Afghanistan’s northeastern provinces near the CSTO’s southern borders. Rakhmon noted that increased activities of international terrorist groups in Afghanistan directly impact the zone of the CSTO’s collective security and called for creating "a security belt around Afghanistan.".