CSTO To Establish Regional Military Integration Systems

CSTO TO ESTABLISH REGIONAL MILITARY INTEGRATION SYSTEMS

RIA Novosti
17:42 | 02/ 03/ 2009

YEREVAN, March 2 (RIA Novosti) – The Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) plans to establish several different types of
regional integration military systems, the post-Soviet security
grouping’s general secretary said Monday.

"The collective security system within the CSTO framework is currently
being built according to a regional principle. There exist several
regional military groupings – Russian-Belarusian, Russian-Armenian and
now the issue of creating a Central Asian group is being considered,"
Nikolai Bordyuzha told journalists.

The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Russia and Belarus recently signed an agreement to establish a united
air defense system.

"This is the first step toward the creation of such regional systems,"
Bordyuzha said.

He also said the CSTO’s collective rapid reaction forces would not
interfere in the domestic conflicts of its member countries, adding
however that the final decision on their deployment would rest with
the organization’s heads of state.