CSTO summit adopts joint statement

Presidents of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have signed a joint statement during the session of the Collective Security Council (CSC) on December 23 in Moscow, a Tengrinews journalist reported from Moscow.

CSTO countries - Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - agreed in the statement that the growing tension in the world, the reviving neo-Nazi ideology, weakening security mechanisms and emergence of new conflict zones, including those in the Eurasian region called for urgent measures to stabilize the situation.

Member states are convinced that polycentric system based on the principles of justice and equality is the only basis for sustainable system of collective security in today’s world. This is because neither individual countries nor even alliances are able to accomplish this task on their own. It is therefore necessary to enhance international cooperation and to seek compromises.

The CSTO leaders also expressed their concern about the terrorist threat, growing both in numbers, ideologically and financially, that had been playing a role of its own in regional conflicts and exploiting inter-confessional and ethnic tensions.

Terrorism emerging and growing in Middle East poses another significant danger to the global security, especially in the context of the groups the Islamic State formed in April 2013 and growing out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as well as Jabhat al-Nusra (the al-Nusra Front), a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria and Lebanon.

In the statement, the CSTO leaders also voiced their concern about terrorism spreading from Afghanistan to the CSTO countries. The presidents agreed to take coordinated measures against persons coming back to the territory of CSTO member states after participating in armed conflicts on the side of international terrorist organizations.

The CSTO leaders specifically focused on on Afghanistan in their statement. They welcomed the recent presidential elections and the steps taken to achieve national unity in Afghanistan, and at the same time, expressed their willingness to support the development of Afghanistan as an independent, peaceful and neutral country, free from terrorism and drug-related crime.

Given the growing drug production in Afghanistan and threat of terrorism in the country that posed a serious threat to regional and international security, the CSTO member states agreed to work closely with the new Afghan government and the international community in order to counter those threats.

The statement urged for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Ukraine using solely political and diplomatic methods and for a peace settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict effected in compliance with the basic principles and norms of the international law, the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, in particular regarding the non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity, equality and the rights of peoples to self-determination.

In general, the statement stipulates a closer cooperation both between the member states of the Organization and with other international and regional organizations including the United Nations, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Today's world is changing fast, old problems escalate and new ones emerge, including the use of information and communication technologies, nuclear proliferation, illicit drug and human trafficking, illegal migration. This all inevitably threatens the global security. Therefore the CSTO members agreed about the importance of a closer cooperation in such uneasy time.

By Assel Satubaldina