DUSHANBE, October 5, Asia-Plus  -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation.

The document  was inked by the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuza and the SCO Secretary General  Secretary General Bolat Nurgaliyev in Dushanbe today morning.  

The document focuses on common goals and cooperation trends of the two Eurasian organizations

In line with the document the CSTO and SCO Secretariats will exchange the information, hold consultations, work out joint programs and events in order to develop interaction in the sphere of ensuring regional and international security and stability, counteract to such threats and challenges as terrorism, arms and drugs trafficking, international organized crime.  The memorandum is coordinated with the internal procedures of the two organizations. 

Speaking at the document-signing ceremony, Bolat Nurgaliyev noted that the signed document will allow expanding partnership of two similar organizations in providing regional security, fighting transnational organized crime and drug trafficking.  

For his part, the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha noted that the document does not mean that the organizations are striving for competing with the NATO in the region as some experts suppose.  “We consider the NATO as international organization dealing with security issues.  We do not see enemy in the NATO; on contrary, we want to cooperate with it and have already offered interaction, in particular, in fighting drug trafficking.”