Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 17, 2004, Friday
ORGANIZATION OF THE CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY: MEETING IN
YEREVAN[]
SOURCE: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 48, December 15 – 21, 2004,
p. 2
by Samvel Martirosjan
For a whole assortment of reasons the Russian media made but scant
reports on the 10th meeting of secretaries of Security Councils of
the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty that took
place in Yerevan not long ago. Meanwhile, representatives of Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan that met in the
capital of Armenia did not restrict discussion to current problems of
military political and military economic co-operation.
Armenian defense minister and secretary of the Security Council
announced that the meeting was taking place against a complicated
political background in the zone of responsibility of the
Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty. “Global and
regional threats, and first and foremost international terrorism, are
becoming undeniably more serious,” Serzh Sarkisjan said. He also
mentioned the negative effect of political instability in Afghanistan
and traffic on the situation in Central Asia. Secretaries assembled
in Yerevan discussed ways and means dealing with traffic.
Operation Channel-2004 in countries of the Organization of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty was summed up. According to General
Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha, the involved countries set up a security
belt along the northern borders of Afghanistan. The operation
included two phases. Law enforcement agencies of countries of the
Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty were involved in
phase one; they were joined by security structures of Azerbaijan,
Iran, and Uzbekistan in phase two. Over 5 tons of drugs were
confiscated, several thousand criminal proceedings instigated, new
traffic routes uncovered. The meeting in Yerevan discussed ways of
traffic neutralization. Decisions were made to improve co-operation
between countries of the Organization of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty. Establishment of a special coordinating body within the
framework of the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
was discussed.
Since Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev had urged NATO to
express its opinion on Karabakh and Armenian “policy of occupation”,
Igor Ivanov of Russia was asked about the possibility of using the
Alliance to settle the old territorial dispute. “Dialogue – including
dialogue on the highest level – has already been established as a
means of solving the Karabakh problem,” Ivanov replied. “I do not
think we need any changes that may complicate development of the
dialogue.” The problem is handled by the OSCE Minsk Group, Ivanov
said, and the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty had
no intention of interfering with the process. It has different
objectives, and the matter of Karabakh was not discussed at the
Yerevan meeting; neither were other regional conflicts.
All the same, the meeting did discuss official Baku’s recent attempt
to have the UN General Assembly discuss a resolution “On the
situation on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”. Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan backed the Azerbaijani initiative at the General Committee
that forms the agenda of the UN General Assembly. Bordyuzha called it
“a certain malfunction of the system of coordination of the
Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty.” The matter was
discussed and the debates ended in the agreement to improve
coordination in the matters affecting security of members of the
Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty.
Speaking of contacts with international organizations, Ivanov said
that the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty alone
could not hope to successfully cope with international terrorism,
trafficking, or illegal immigration. The Organization of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty will therefore expand co-operation with
the UN, NATO, and the European Union.
It should be mentioned as well that the Constitutional Court of
Armenia voted to postpone discussion of legitimacy of the accord to
send a national humanitarian contingent (50 men) to Iraq because
Sarkisjan was at the meeting with his counterparts from members of
the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty. In fact, his
schedule had been set long ago. It follows that the decision to set
the Constitutional Court meeting for November 30 was a political move
on the part of Armenia. It was a message to Russia that Armenia did
not contemplate any serious deviations from the course for
military-political integration with Russia.
This assumption is also confirmed by results of the meeting of the
parliamentary commission set up by the Federal Assembly of the
Russian Federation and the National Assembly of the Republic of
Armenia. Its protocol emphasizes that political and military
co-operation between Russia and Armenia answers their national
interests and that their military alliance is an instrumental element
of security in the Caucasus.