By Vestnik Kavkaza
On December 19, 2012, at the Grand Kremlin Palace, a regular session took place of the CSTO and the EurAsEC Interstate Council, as well as a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of Heads of State. The Moscow summit ended with complete elimination of Uzbekistan from the organization and adoption of the final statement. Tashkent officially stopped its participation in the CSTO, and Uzbekistan will have no other opportunity to join the organization again.
At the moment the CSTO includes six members – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
The increased level of our foreign policy cooperation, foreign policy coordination. Over the last year we made more than 15 joint statements on topical international issues. The cooperation of the CSTO with other international and regional organizations is strengthening, especially with such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the CIS. It is planned to continue to carry on this work, seeking to create an efficient partner network to address threats to security in the Eurasian space. The situation in Afghanistan requires special attention, including in connection with the forthcoming reduction of the international military presence in the country in 2014.
Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus
No doubt that the period ahead will be tough. The evolution of the development of the Collective Security Treaty Organization implies stability and security not only in the area of responsibility of the organization itself, but also on its perimeter. The initiative to create the institution of partnership declared during the Belarusian chairmanship has been focused on expanding the influence of organizations across its borders. This takes into account the factor of 2014, when many of the coalition forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. In a narrow range all the presidents spoke on this subject in this manner. I am convinced that it is still relevant, especially in light of the increased efforts of Mongolia to integrate into the existing architecture of European security. As you know, this country has recently joined the OSCE; maybe Mongolia would be interested in establishing cooperation with the CSTO in directions interesting for both sides. We should also mention the existing potential of enhancing cooperation with international organizations. Firstly, this concerns increased interaction with the OSCE in the areas where there is accumulated significant experience in both structures. Second, we need to develop links for peacekeeping campaigns under the auspices of the United Nations. This is the niche that is the most relevant, but here we are still at the beginning. The Collective Security Treaty Organization in the near future must connect to at least one of the missions of the UN, and it will not only strengthen our cooperation with the Secretariat of the United Nations, but also give us invaluable experience in joint peacekeeping operations. Third, even with NATO, which supposedly does not notice the existence of our organization, there is a possibility for dialogue. It is well known that, despite the demonstrative dislike of the Alliance, its experts and analysts are closely watching our organization, our exercises and other practical activities of the CSTO.
Serge Sargsyan, President of Armenia
In September, Armenia held the joint exercise "Cooperation-2012". Both the preparation and the exercises themselves have demonstrated the ability of our countries to work together to solve multi-disciplinary and diverse tasks involving military units, internal forces, security services and emergency forces. The exercise held in Armenia for the first time in the CSTO was fully attended by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The exercises, as well as the preceding exercises "Frontier-2012" and the first joint exercise involving peacekeeping forces of the CSTO "Inviolable Brotherhood-2012", made a significant contribution to strengthening the compatibility of our armed forces and the potential of our organization.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan
I consider it important to develop on the basis of our organization a system of collective response to emergency situations. The experience of our countries and the world practice shows that emergency workers often have to perform rescue operations during natural disasters. Kazakhstan has provided for this purpose a training ground of MOE "The city of Astana in the rocks." This direction was one of the priorities of our chairmanship in 2012. I hope it will continue in the next year under the chairmanship of Kyrgyzstan.
Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan
We believe the implementation of the CSTO plan approved a year ago to address the challenges and threats to security quite relevant. Today at the Collective Security Council we make decisions on issues of cooperation in the field of information security. But so far there is little of practical value in the already signed agreements, programs and other documents in the field of collective interaction for us. Meanwhile, disorientation of the media of the CSTO on information priorities for collective security persists. Often, they are completely absent. The task information fight against destructive ideologies and other threats is poorly performed. Moreover, a number of information entities are their conductors. To change the situation in the information field, in our view, we must operationalize the earlier documents on a coordinated information policy and a joint information project.
