AGREEMENT ON CSTO RAPID REACTION FORCES SIGNED DESPITE THE "DAIRY HYSTERIA" OF BELARUS
Karen Ghazaryan

"Radiolur"
15.06.2009 12:33
Moscow-Yerevan

The sitting of the Council of Presidents of CSTO member countries
was held in Moscow on June 14. Belarus did not participate in the
sitting. Alexander Lukashenko pulled out of the summit as a protest
against Russia’s ban on Belarusian dairy products. Belarus had to
take up the presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
after Armenia, but the Russian Federation temporarily assumed the
responsibility because of the absence of Belarus.

The Presidents of Armenia and Russia Serzh Sargsyan and Dmiytry
Medvedev summed up the results of the CSTO summit at a joint press
conference.

The CSTO summit yesterday discussed a wide range of issues connected
with military cooperation, the coordination of foreign policy,
resisting the threats and challenges. Assessing the activity of the
organization over the past year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
said great work had been done, as a result of which a whole package of
documents was signed. "I’d like to thank everyone for the effective
work and I do hope that the joint decisions will contribute to the
reinforcement of security in our countries," Mr. Medvedev said.

Uzbekistan had a special opinion on the package adopted. In particular,
its reservations concerned the agreement on20the creation of
rapid-reaction forces, more precisely, the statute of the commandership
of the collective forces and the principles of their functioning.

As it was expected, the signing of the agreement on the creation
of rapid-reaction forces became the main event of the recurrent
CSTO summit.

According to the Russian President, the establishment of the
rapid-reaction forces is of exceptional importance under the conditions
of the complex conflicts in the world and the most different regional
challenges.

According to Dmitry Medvedev, the fact that some countries are still
thinking of whether to join or not to join the agreement is not
a tragedy.

"None of the similar forces has been formed in a day and not all the
members have joined simultaneously," he noted.

Asked to comment on the one year of Armenia’s presidency of the CSTO,
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: "I think a great work has
been done. First of all, it is the creation of the rapid-reaction
forces and the closer coordination of the foreign political actions. I
believe that only these two achievements evidence that a serious work
has been done over the past year."

As for the behavior of Belarus, it is not very clear to Dmitry
Medvedev, since the disputes between two countries, including the
"dairy" issue should be solved through consultations. According to him,
it’s a technical matter, which can be s ettled very quickly. "I’m
confident that this "meat and dairy hysteria" will not disturb the
activity of the rapid-reaction forces, since the advantages are obvious
and taking political decisions is the most important," Medvedev said.