Interfax, Russia
Sept 12 2008
CSTO to pay "very serious attention" to military component – Bordyuzha
MOSCOW Sept 12
The military component of CSTO (Collective Security Treaty
Organization) activity will be enhanced, CSTO Secretary General
Nikolai Bordyuzha told a news conference at Interfax on Friday.
"We are moving the direction of transforming the CSTO from a
military-political bloc into a multipurpose international structure
capable of reacting to all types of challenges, which was outlined
several years ago. Secondly, very serious attention will be paid to
the military component," Bordyuzha said.
A number of crucial decisions on the further development of the
organization were made at a recent CSTO session in Yerevan, he said,
adding that in particular it was decided to accelerate military
cooperation between the member states.
"In fact, it was acknowledged that the decision made in Yerevan will
add great dynamism to the processes of creating bilateral groups of
armed forces: Russian-Belarusian and Russian-Armenian, as well as the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces in the Central Asian region. The
creation of joint regional air defense systems of the CSTO member
states, as well as communication and military group command systems
will speed up as well, he added.
The CSTO consists of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.