DUSHANBE, April 2, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) protocol on mechanism of providing military and technical assistance in case of threat of aggression or act of military aggression against a member nation has come into effect, press release issued by the CSTO Secretariat yesterday said.

“The document is an interstate part of mechanism of interaction between governmental and interstate bodies in case of fulfillment of the Collective Security Treaty articles providing for rending assistance, including the military one, in case of military aggression against any of member nations of the Organization,” the CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov said.    

The protocol determines the procedure and conditions of providing military and technical assistance to one or several sides that signed the document, Semerikov said.  Providing military and technical assistance means rendering military equipment free of charge or on preferential terms for the purpose of supporting and restoring fighting capacity of the armed forces of member nations of the Organization in case of the abovementioned acts.

The protocol has been ratified by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia to this date.

The CSTO is the regional security organization that 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 member nations. 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 renamed as CSTO.  Uzbekistan joined the Organization in 2006.