In These New Times

Russia Today 

4th February, 2009

The members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization – Russia and six neighbouring states – have agreed to set up a collective rapid reaction force to combat terrorism, military aggression, and drug trafficking.

CSTO news conference (Part 1)
CSTO news conference (Part 2)

The decision was made during a CSTO summit in Moscow, attended by the leaders and foreign ministers of the member-states: Russia, Belarus and five countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, the current chair of the group, said the decision was momentous.

“I would like to emphasize the importance of this decision to establish rapid reaction forces. It’s aimed at strengthening the military capacity of our organisation.”   

Up to now, the organisation has positioned itself as an important political and military alliance in the post-Soviet space. But other countries haven’t perceived it as such. 

In theory, the CSTO already has a collective force. But it doesn’t have a common command structure. Nor does it have a permanent home.  

However, the decision to create a truly collective force with a permanent location and a united command would propel the alliance to a new level.  

Earlier, Russian presidential aide Sergey Prikhodko said the new unit “might be used to rebuff military aggression, conduct special operations against international terrorism and violent manifestations of extremism, transnational organized crime and drugs trafficking, and also for the elimination of effects of natural and technogenic emergencies,”.

Under existing arrangements, Prikhodko said, each CSTO member-state had its own rapid reaction force that could be committed to action in case of the emergence of common threats.

More CSTO links:
CSTO agree on military group in Central Asia
Joint declaration on South Ossetia signed in MoscowInterview with Nikolay Bordyuzha, Secretary General of CSTO