Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 30 November (BelTA) - The Minsk summit has become another important stage in the development of the organization, CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov told the media in Mink on 30 November, BelTA has learned.

Yuri Khachaturov stressed that “the session of the Collective Security Council and the joint meeting of the CSTO charter bodies have become another important stage in the development of the organization as an international regional structure of collective security in Eurasia.”

During the session the presidents exchanged views on a wide range of issues in global and regional policy. The heads of state adopted statements on a number of issues, in particular on the Syrian conflict and the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The CSTO Collective Security Council adopted a statement on joint measures to strengthen the defense capabilities of the CSTO member states. In addition, the session discussed the ways of strengthening military cooperation as one of the most important components of collective security in ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the CSTO member states.

In this regard, Yuri Khachaturov noted that the plan of joint activities of operational and combat training of the CSTO collective forces was executed by 100% in 2017. Tajikistan hosted an unscheduled large-scale exercise with the CSTO collective forces. All in all, over 12,000 people took part in all exercises held in Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. “In order to further improve the collective forces training system to respond to crises, the heads of state adopted a number of decisions which we will implement in 2018,” informed Yuri Khachaturov.

The CSTO secretary general added that in the context of strengthening defense capacities of the CSTO member states the presidents signed a protocol on amendments to the agreement on the basic principles of military-technical cooperation to enhance the mechanism for pricing of products for military purposes.

Given the urgency of the problem and the need to counter illegal migration from third countries more efficiently, the heads of state decided to give Nelegal the status of an ongoing operation in the CSTO and approved the resolution on it.