In absence of Cold War NATO’s role is obscure: President Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev believes NATO’s role in absence of the Cold War to be obscure, Newskaz.ru reports, citing President Nazarbayev as saying in his recent interview for the Russia 24 Channel. “As far as NATO is concerned, after the Cold War was over the role of NATO is absolutely obscure. (…) The Warsaw Pact is no longer in effect. The Cold War is over. What is the essence [of the Organization]?”, President said in the interview. Head of Kazakhstan elaborated that the Western ideology was based on the idea of “the Western system [of values] being the most progressive, whereas the Soviet Union reportedly failing everywhere”. NATO's first Secretary General, Lord Ismay famously said after the organization was formed in 1949 that its purpose was to "keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. “This contrast between everything in the West being the best and the Soviets failing in all realms is no longer there”, President Nazarbayev summed up. When commenting on security within the post-Soviet space, President Nazarbayev elaborated that the Collective Security Treaty Organization was established to counteract terrorism and extremism. “This Organization was launched to ensure collective defense in case of extremism harming any of the member states. (…) I don’t see any obvious threat of war nowadays. However, some other threats can originate on the southern rims. Drugs trafficking is a real threat to all of us. The scale is unprecedented. Afghanistan keeps on growing narcotic substances and offering more sophisticated products (…) who will be ruling the nation, what policy they will be pursuing … we yet have to see that”, the President believes. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed on 15 May 1992. On 7 October 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a charter in Tashkent founding the CSTO. On 23 June 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant in the CSTO.