Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 17 July (BelTA) – The Collective Security Treaty Organization should be more actively present in discussions and decision making in international organizations. The statement was made by CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko met with ministers of foreign affairs of the CSTO member states in Minsk, BelTA has learned.

The CSTO secretary general said: “Dangerous conflict hotbeds persist along the perimeter of the CSTO responsibility area as well as Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the European region. The conflict hotbeds may potentially influence the collective security and evolve into situations, which consequences cannot be predicted. We are particularly concerned about the possibility that the manipulation of regional conflicts and increased military activity in Europe, military preparations and weapon deployments over there may break the strategic balance, which is already happening, and may lead to the degradation of the system of international relations that has prevented chaos and global wars up till now.”

The CSTO secretary general stressed that in these conditions it is important to further improve the mechanism of CSTO cooperation in foreign policy matters and effectively implement all the decisions made in this area. “In our opinion the CSTO should be more actively present during discussions and decision making in international organizations. We need to thoroughly discuss how the CSTO member states and the organization as a whole can bolster and expand the potential for jointly responding to the events happening in the world and for assimilating and using preventive diplomacy methods, for building partnerships for preventing the development of negative and dangerous trends in the international situation,” noted Yuri Khachaturov.

The CSTO secretary general said he believes that one of the reserves is bolstering the CSTO presidency’s role for coordinating and implementing decisions and for putting forward initiatives as part of a CSTO presidency by any member state. It is also necessary to put more efforts into implementing decisions on forming a crisis response system in the Collective Security Treaty Organization.