CIS SECURITY BODY CHIEF CALLS FOR COOPERATION WITH UZBEKISTAN

UzReport.com website, Tashkent
5 May 06

The heads of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization [CSTO] are ready to deepen cooperation with Uzbekistan,
the secretary-general of the CSTO, Nikolay Bordyuzha said in Minsk
on Thursday [4 May].

He is taking part in the away session of the international
antiterrorist media forum which is taking place in the capital of
Belarus, RIA Novosti reported.

“An idea of joint activities with Uzbekistan in a number of specific
issues found a complete support of the presidents of all CSTO members
states,” Bordyuzha said.

Bordyuzha said that after meeting Uzbek President Islom Karimov,
during which an agreement on deepening cooperation in a number of
spheres was reached, he also visited leaders of the CSTO member states.

“The presidents believe that we should cooperate with Uzbekistan in
the sphere of countering political and religious extremism, providing
stability in the Central Asian region,” the secretary-general of the
CSTO noted.

As a specific example of cooperation he demonstrated consultations of
the secretaries of the security councils of CSTO of the central Asian
region and Uzbekistan that were held in Dushanbe, and during which
“specific joint measures on ensuring stable situation in Central Asia
were discussed”.

Uzbekistan, Bordyuzha emphasized, as a big and powerful state in the
region, very seriously influences the political situation.

The secretary-general of the CSTO believes that if the steps that
are being made bring the member states of the organization and
Uzbekistan to a new level of cooperation, then, he does not “exclude
a possibility, if Uzbekistan is interested, of its joining the CSTO”.

However, Bordyuzha noted, for Uzbekistan, that had once joined the
collective security treaty, “it is not serious to do hasty steps now
and to join the CSTO”.

“Only joint activities of all states will ensure stability in Central
Asia, particularly, when the situation is getting tense there,”
Bordyuzha underlined.

The CSTO member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia and Tajikistan.
From: Baghdasarian