Situation in Kyrgyzstan, region to top CSTO summit agenda in Armenia
"It is believed that the heads of state will discuss the situation in Central Asia, measures that can be taken by the CSTO member states to help stabilise the situation in Kyrgyzstan, and ways to improve the CSTO's emergency response mechanisms," presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said on Wednesday, August 18.
"Taking into account the nature of the event, any of the presidents can propose additional issues for discussion. For example, it is planned that the president of Russia, who is the current chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council, will discuss the date of the next CSTO Collective Security Council meeting in Moscow," the aide said.
"By tradition, no documents will be adopted at the informal summit. Nevertheless, the CSTO heads of state will undoubtedly give a boost to the work on the decisions of the future summit and possibly reach new ground-breaking decisions as they did after a meeting in 2008 in Borovoye, Kazakhstan," Prikhodko said.
The informal meeting to begin on Friday, August 20, will be the fourth such event in the history of the CSTO. Armenia will be hosting an informal summit for the first time. This format of top-level contacts began in Borovoye, Kazakhstan, on December 19-21, 2008 and was then developed in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, on July 31 - August 1, 2009 and in Moscow on May 8, 2010.
The heads of state will have their meetings and talks and will also visit Lake Sevan.
Bilateral meetings maybe held on the sidelines of the summit.
The CSTO is a military-political alliance of seven countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
On October 7, 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, signed a charter in Tashkent, founding the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Nikolai Bordyuzha was appointed secretary general of the new organisation. On June 23, 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant in the CSTO and its membership was formally ratified by its parliament on March 28, 2008. The CSTO is an observer organisation at the United Nations General Assembly.
The charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. To this end, the CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organisation cooperation.
The CSTO employs a "rotating presidency" system in which the country leading the CSTO alternates every year.
The CSTO grew out of the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and first began as the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST), which was signed on May 15, 1992, by Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in the city of Tashkent. Azerbaijan signed the treaty on September 24, 1993, Georgia on December 9, 1993 and Belarus on December 31, 1993. The treaty came into effect on April 20, 1994, Kazinform refers to ITAR-TASS.
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