CSTO: Military Cooperation Not Directed Against Third Countries

Military cooperation within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is not directed against third countries. This is stated in the joint declaration, which the leaders of the former Soviet republics signed at the end of the CSTO summit held in Astana (Kazakhstan).

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military-political alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Article 4 of the CSTO states that an attack on one signatory will be taken as an attack on all. The CSTO Charter reaffirms the readiness of all participating states to refrain from the use or from the threat to use force. Signatories are forbidden to join other military alliances.

Armenia did not attend the summit in Kazakhstan because of what leaders in Yerevan called “a lack of CSTO support in the military conflict over control of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan.”

During the Astana summit, member countries emphasized “the need to advance biosecurity cooperation by working to ban chemical and biological weapons.” In this context, the CSTO countries supported the development of special forces of the collective security system “to increase their high combat readiness.”

Internationally, Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) said that US President-elect Donald Trump is a “smart and experienced politician” and will be able to “find solutions.” During a press conference in Kazakhstan following the CSTO summit, he emphasized that the “attacks” on the Trump family during the presidential campaign were disgusting: “But what struck me most was that it was not only he himself who was subjected to humiliating and unjustified procedures during the attacks on him. There were also attacks on his family members, on his children,” the Russian president said.