CSTO Secretary General on how organisation coping with challenges and threats
The task of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is to protect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of its member states – as noted by CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov in his talk with STV TV channel
Photo by STV TV channel
Mr. Tasmagambetov noted that CSTO is fighting challenges and threats, “These are primarily transnational terrorism, religious extremism, drug and illegal arms trafficking, as well as illegal migration. We are liaising closely in all these areas. For example, a sub-regional operation to combat drug trafficking took place on October 21st-25th, and it involved border, customs and state security services of the CSTO member states. Representatives of China, Iran, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, the CIS and the United Nations Office on Drug Control were among the observers. In total, 24 thousand people were involved. Thanks to co-ordinated actions on the territory of our area of responsibility, 590kg of various types of drugs were excluded from illegal trafficking over those five days. Seven drug laboratories were destroyed, and around 683, if my memory serves me correctly, drug crimes related to the manufacture, sale and distribution of drugs were stopped. That became possible thanks to a very serious and co-ordinated work by the CSTO member states.”
The Secretary General also informed what issues will be on the agenda of the forthcoming CSTO meeting, “Kazakhstan is chairing this year. As always, there are quite a lot of topics to discuss. Looking back at last year's Collective Security Council meeting (chaired successfully by Belarus), we cannot but speak positively of Minsk’s active work in this direction. At that time, very serious documents were adopted specifying the issue of the crisis response system. At present, this document allows us to really implement solutions as soon as possible and respond very quickly to certain crisis situations. This year, the Collective Security Council meeting will adopt a very important document: a targeted interstate programme for the development of the Tajik-Afghan border, because the Afghan issue is among the relevant activities of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Although the situation seems to have stabilised and is moving slowly towards a peaceful course, nevertheless, there are still enough terrorist organisations on the territory of Afghanistan, and the problem is definitely very serious. The signing of this document will certainly allow the CSTO member states to jointly develop this section of the border and thereby ensure the security of the Central Asian countries.”
