DUSHANBE, August 21, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- First Deputy Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Ramyl Nadirov, is representing Tajikistan at a regular session of the council of defense ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that opened in Yerevan, Armenia today, Captain Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a chief spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.      

According to him, the meeting is discussing issues related to providing security within the CIS area and interaction between the defense ministries of member nations of the CSTO in different fields.  The ministers will consider implementation of the CSTO coalition military building for the period till 2010 and prospect of further expansion of military and military-technical cooperation within the CSTO area.    

The session participants also plan to discuss draft regulations on procedure of working out, financing and implementing targeted interstate programs of the CSTO, priority areas of activities of the Organization in the second half-year of 2008 ad the first half-year of 2009, as well as the plan of consultations of experts on expansion of military cooperation, the spokesman said.  

The session participants will also attend the fourth final stage of the command-and-staff drill, dubbed Rubezh''2008 (Frontier''2008), that will be held at one of training grounds near Yerevan tomorrow, Mahmadaliyev said. 

The regional security organization was initially formed in 1992 for a five-year period by the members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) -- Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which were joined by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Belarus the following year.  A 1994 treaty "reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force," and prevented signatories from joining any "other military alliances or other groups of states" directed against members states.  The CST was then extended for another five-year term in April 1999, and was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.  In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO.  In 2006, Uzbekistan joined the Organization.