BELARUS AND UZBEKISTAN DO NOT SIGN AGREEMENT ON CREATING A JOINT RAPID-REACTION FORCE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
15.06.2009 10:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Belarus and Uzbekistan have not signed the
agreement on creating a joint rapid-reaction force of Collective
Security Treaty. Only five out of seven CSTO member states approved
the document at the Moscow summit: Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyz Republic,
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Belarusian delegation has pulled out of Sunday’s summit in protest
against trade restrictions, in a so called "Milky war", and Uzbekistan
expressed some concerns related to formation of military CSTO forces.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a note handed to the CSTO’s
secretariat that the country’s non-participation "means the lack of
approval from the Republic of Belarus of decisions being considered" at
the summit, along with the foreign and defense ministers’ meetings, and
"consequently a lack of consensus for the taking of these decisions."

Earlier, Russia banned imports of over 1,000 types of milk
products from Belarus, a major item of its budget revenues, saying
producers in the ex-Soviet republic had failed to comply with new
Russian standards. Official Minsk blames Russia in undermining its
economic security, and qualifies Russian’s actions as direct economic
discrimination. Belarus leadership immediately links their country’s
economic security with CSTO’s collective security.

The CSTO rotating presidency, which was expected to be assumed by
Belarus, has been passed over to Russia for the time being. It was
projected earlier, that Armenia would pass presidency to Belarus,
Lenta.ru reports.

The Russian president said that Minsk could join the CSTO summit’s
decisions later, adding that such a move would be welcomed.