DUSHANBE, August 19, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- A mobile operational group of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), headed by the first Deputy Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Ramil Nadyrov, is representing Tajikistan in the third and fourth stages of the command-and-staff drill of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), dubbed Rubezh''2008 (Frontier''2008), that is being held in Armenia on August 18-21 and Russia from August 22-25, according to the MoD press service.

During these stages, purely military actions, traditional for all command and staff exercises, are being practiced.  The military exercise is involving some 4,000 military personnel from Armenia, Russia and Tajikistan, the press service. 

The first phase of Rubezh’2008 was held in Armenia on July 22-23.  The deputy head of the MoD general staff, Major-General Zarif Bobokalonov, represented Tajikistan in the first stage that focused on a mechanism of drafting proposals to the Collective Security Council on military and technological assistance to a country that became a target of aggression.

The second phase of the command-and-staff drill, dubbed Rubezh''2008 (Frontier''2008), involving the staffs of the countries making up the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), was held in Moscow on July 30-31.  Rashid Vohidov, Tajikistan’s Representative to the CSTO, represented the country in the second stage of the drill that considered issues related to working out military and technological assistance to a member nation that may become the target of external aggression.   

The first and the second stages of the exercise were essentially political stages, during which the steps were determined for the CSTO states and the organization as a whole to take on the basis of the situation simulated in the course of the exercise in order to reduce tensions caused in the collective security region by destructive forces, and a mechanism for ensuring a political settlement of the acute situation was worked out. 

We will recall that the CSTO summit that was held in Dushanbe last October resulted in signing of a protocol on defense and technology aid to member nations in case of an emerging danger of aggression against it or an accomplished fact of aggression.   

The Rubezh exercises have been conducted since 2005.  Before that, they were conducted in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

The CSTO member nations are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.