Armenia -Russia collaboration strengthened in 2009
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).