Tashkent officially withdraws from CSTO

Uzbekistan has officially stopped its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and there will be no further concessions made for Tashkent to join it, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reports.

"We have granted Uzbekistan's request and stopped its membership of the CSTO," Lukashenko said at a meeting of the organization in Moscow.

He also added that the member-states agreed that there will be no concessions for countries that will want to join the organization, including Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan forwarded a note to the CSTO secretariat about the cancellation of its membership of the organization.

Uzbekistan has left the Collective Security Treaty Organization once before, in 1999, when the country did not prolong the contract with the organization. In 2006, Tashkent restored its membership.