The secretary of the Russian Security Council has said that pressure from NATO and the United States in the Central Asia region was raising tension in the zone of responsibility of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Igor Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the situation in the southern Caucasus is complicated and there was no stability in Afghanistan or Iraq.
“What we see are practical attempts to interfere in the political life of new independent states under the guise of advancing democratic values and freedoms, putting pressure on authorities via protest processes,” he said. “International terrorism and extremism in all their forms, the increase in the unlawful circulation of drugs, transnational organized crime and the reality of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction pose a serious threat for member states of the CSTO.”
Ivanov said that in these conditions CSTO member states have reached a higher level of consultative dialogue. “International ties involving the CSTO are developing, including with the UN, the OSCE, the CIS and the Eurasian economic cooperation organization. A number of practical steps have been taken to set up a dialogue with NATO,” he noted.
He added that in the development of military cooperation in the framework of the CSTO, most attention has been paid to creating an effective military potential capable of reacting with equivalent countermeasures to possible challenges and threats to the national and collective security of member states of the CSTO. A coordinating council of heads of bodies fighting the drugs threat is functioning effectively in the framework of the CSTO. Apart from that, work is also being perfected in an anti-terrorist direction in the sphere of the fight against illegal migration, Ivanov said.
