ARMENIA – RUSSIA COLLABORATION STRENGTHENED IN 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2010 19:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Collaboration between Armenia and Russia strengthened
in 2009, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said, summarizing
2009 results.

As he told a news conference in Yerevan, a number of meetings were
held between Armenian and Russian leaders; steps were undertaken
towards bilateral relations’ strengthening as well as development
and implementation of new programs.

The year of 2009 was marked by Armenia’s successful chairmanship in
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and Organization of
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Besides, Armenia took active participation in the work of CIS and
EurAsEC, Edward Nalbandian stated.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, formed under the framework
of the Commonwealth of Independent States, serves as a mutual defense
alliance among Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and
Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty (CST) was signed on May
15, 1992 for five-year term, with the possibility of prolongation. On
December 2, 2004 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted
the Resolution to grant the observer status to the Collective Security
Treaty Organization in the General Assembly of the United Nations. The
goal of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is to strengthen
peace and international and regional security and stability and to
ensure collective protection of independence, territorial integrity
and sovereignty of Member States, in the attainment of which Member
States shall give priority to political methods. On February 4, 2009,
the CSTO leaders approved formation of Collective Rapid Reaction Force
(RRF).

On 25 June 1992, the Heads of State and Government of eleven countries
signed in Istanbul the Summit Declaration and the Bosporus Statement
giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). It came into
existence as a model of multilateral political and economic initiative
aimed at fostering interaction and harmony among the Member States,
as well as to ensure peace, stability and prosperity encouraging
friendly and good-neighbourly relations in the Black Sea region.

The BSEC Headquarters – the Permanent International Secretariat of
the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS)
– was established in March 1994 in Istanbul.

With the entry into force of its Charter on 1 May 1999, BSEC acquired
international legal identity and was transformed into a full-fledged
regional economic organization: Organization of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation. With the accession of Serbia (then Serbia and Montenegro)
in April 2004, the Organization’s Member States increased to twelve.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization
whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed
during the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The organization was founded on 8 December 1991 by the Republic of
Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine, when the leaders of
the three countries met in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Natural Reserve,
about 50 km (30 miles) north of Brest in Belarus and signed a Creation
Agreement on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation
of CIS as a successor entity to the USSR. At the same time they
announced that the new alliance would be open to all republics of
the former Soviet Union, as well as other nations sharing the same
goals. The CIS charter stated that all the members were sovereign and
independent nations and thereby effectively abolished the Soviet Union.

On 21 December 1991, the leaders of eight additional former Soviet
Republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – agreed to join the CIS,
thus bringing the number of participating countries to 11. Georgia
joined two years later, in December 1993. As of that time, 12 of
the 15 former Soviet Republics participated in the CIS. Three former
Soviet Republics, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
chose not to join.

The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC or EurAsEC) originated from
the Commonwealth of Independent States customs union between Belarus,
Russia and Kazakhstan on 29 March 1996. The Treaty on the establishment
of the Eurasian Economic Community was signed on 10 October 2000,
in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana by Presidents Alexander Lukashenko
of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Askar Akayev of
Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Emomali Rakhmonov of
Tajikistan. On 7 October 2005 it was decided between the member states
that Uzbekistan would join. Freedom of movement is implemented among
the members (no visa requirements).