Leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations will gather in the Armenian capital of Yerevan tomorrow to discuss security issues.  

The summit will be attended by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

The CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas will also participate in the Collective Security Council session.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the current rotting chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council, will chair the summit.

The CSTO Secretariat says The session will focus on a number of international and regional security issues and the main results of the organization’s activities in the inter-parliamentary arena, the CSTO Secretariat said in a press release.

Among other issues, the CSTO leaders will discuss the perfection of the organization’s crisis response system.

Other issues on the session’s agenda reportedly relate to equipping the peacekeeping forces with modern weapons and hardware, joint formation of a Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense and Medical Support Unit, the CSTO 2023 budget and others.

President Lukashenko will present Belarus’ priorities as his country will take over the CSTO Chairmanship in 2023.

The CSTO Collective Security Council’s summit is expected to result in adoption of a declaration.  

Meanwhile, Tajik president’s official website says Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Defense Minister Sherali Mirzo, Presidential Adviser on Foreign Affairs Azamsho Sharifi, Security Council Secretary Nasrullo Mahmoudzoda, and Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Russia Davlatshoy Gulmahmadzoda are accompanying the president on his trip to Yerevan.   

Prior to the Collective Security Council regular session, a joint session of the CSTO foreign ministers, defense ministers and security council secretaries will take place in Armenian capital to discuss the military political situation in the CSTO area of responsibility.

In accordance with Article 13 of the CSTO Charter, the Collective Security Council is the highest body of the Organization.  The Council considers the fundamental issues of the Organization’s activities and makes decisions aimed at the realization of its goals and objectives, as well as ensures the coordination and joint activities of the Member States to achieve these goals.  The Council includes heads of member states.  Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Defense, Secretaries of Security Councils of Member States, the Secretary General of the Organization, Plenipotentiary Representatives of Member States to the Organization and invited persons can participate in meetings of the Council.  The Council has the right to establish, on a permanent or temporary basis, the working and subsidiary bodies of the Organization.  The Chairman of the Council is the head of state on whose territory the regular session of the Council is held, unless the Council decides otherwise.  His rights and obligations remain with him until the next regular session of the Council.

Created in 1992, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is a Russia-led military alliance grouping the six former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.