Russian media reports say Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on February 20 held a meeting with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary-General Imangali Tasmagambetov.

TASS, citing the Russian Defense Ministry’s press center, says the parties discussed topical issues of development of the military component of the organization and improvement of its force potential," the ministry said.

During the meeting, Shoigu reportedly congratulated Tasmagambetov on his appointment.  

"I want to immediately congratulate you on your appointment to this important and responsible post, on which much depends in our organization. I count on your colossal experience as a figure of national scale, and now of interstate scale, given your experience, including on the post of Defense Minister, where you have done much for the establishment of the Kazakh armed forces," the Russian defense minister was cited as saying. 

Shoigu reportedly also expressed hope that the experience of the new Secretary-General will serve to further strengthen the authority of the CSTO both in the international arena and within each of the states that are members of the organization.

For his part, Tasmagambetov thanked Shoigu for the meeting and noted that last week he visited Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the current rotating chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council.  

“First of all, we signed a plan of actions for the implementation of the decisions of the Collective Security Council – the November decisions of last year,” Tasmagambetov said.

Imangali Tasmagambetov was appointed CSTO Secretary-General on January 1, 2023 for a three-year term.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia.  It now includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.