SECRETARIES OF CSTO SECURITY COUNCILS DISCUSS MILITARY-POLITICAL SITUATION IN REGION

Interfax
Sept 3 2008
Russia

The Committee of Secretaries of the Security Councils of the
member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met
in Yerevan on Wednesday to discuss trends in the military-political
situation in the organization’s responsibility area, measures to
neutralize challenges and threats to collective security in the region,
as well as progress in the implementation of decisions made at the
CSTO Collective Security Council sessions in Minsk and Dushanbe.

Armenian National Security Council Secretary Artur Bagdasarian took up
the rotating chairmanship of the committee at the session in Yerevan.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Bagdasarian said the
participants in the session had considered a set of documents aimed at
building an efficient system of collective response to new challenges
and threats.

These challenges and threats are "so serious now that a clear-cut
action plan needs to be developed," Bagdasarian said.

"In particular, this concerns the establishment of a possible center
to counter these challenges and threats, the building of a structure
of special services within the CSTO framework, and there is also
a proposal that a similar structure be formed between the interior
ministries from the member-states," he said.

The CSTO is comprised of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.