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Military cooperation, biosecurity to top agenda of CSTO summit

The countries are planning "to discuss deeper military cooperation and more efficient interaction on an entire range of current and new challenges and threats, including those emanating from Afghanistan", according to the Kremlin

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The leaders of the countries within the Collective Security Treaty Organization will discuss deeper military cooperation and biosecurity during the summit to mark the organization’s 30th anniversary, which is taking place in Moscow on Monday, according to the materials prepared for the event by the Kremlin.

The countries are planning "to discuss deeper military cooperation and more efficient interaction on an entire range of current and new challenges and threats, including those emanating from Afghanistan", according to the Kremlin. They will also focus on the problem of biosecurity.

The leaders were earlier reported to be planning to focus on enhancing their collective security system, peacekeeping potential, and mechanisms of rapid response to crises, heeding the experience the organization gained during its peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan.

The CSTO is a post-Soviet security organization, which currently unites six countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The treaty to establish the organization was signed by the leaders of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on May 15, 1992 (Uzbekistan left the CSTO in 2012). Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus joined the organization in 1993, Azerbaijan and Georgia quit in 1999.

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