Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested that CSTO jointly respond to emergency situations

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested that CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) creates special groups in the Emergency Situations Ministries, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the President as saying at the CSTO session in Moscow. “I consider it important to develop a collective emergency situations response system in our organization. Experience of our countries and global practices show that personnel of our Emergency Situations Ministries frequently has to perform rescue operations during disasters. It will be proper not to wait for actual emergency situations to happen and create special groups, train them, provide them with special vehicles and equipment, so that if a need arises, our countries could help each other. Kazakhstan has provided its training site of the Emergency Situation Ministry called Rock City Astana,” Nazarbayev said at the meeting. The meeting of CSTO member-countries started behind closed doors. According to the President, heads of the countries had “a successful exchange of opinions on the current issues of the organization’s functioning”. “Special attention was given to military cooperation and it was the main subject of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship. I am confident that today’s meeting will boost this sector of the organization’s activities,” the President stressed. According to Nazarbayev, CSTO is also focusing on the situation in Central Asia that is constantly changing and, unfortunately, “is not becoming any quieter,” the President said. “That’s why our joint plans on countering drug trafficking, improvement of collective response forces, creation of a common PRO system that we have discussed are implemented in the Central Asian direction,” Nazarbayev said. By Gulnara Zhandagulova