BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/08/2007

Belarus presidency in CSTO highly effective - Bordyuzha

MOSCOW, August 21 (Itar-Tass) - Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said the time of Belarus' presidency in the CSTO "was one of the most effective periods of the Organization's activities." He said this after the meeting of the CSTO high-level group in Moscow on Tuesday.

"The assessment of the package of documents considered shows that this was one of the most effective periods in the work of the CSTO," Bordyuzha said. "In the year of Belarus' presidency we have succeeded in coordinating a large number of documents for the development of the Organization, specifically, a package on peacekeeping activities," he said.

Grigory Karasin, the state secretary, deputy foreign minister of the Russian Federation, said, on his part, that the meeting discussed questions of sustaining the Organization's operation on a short-term and medium-term basis. "The CSTO has a broad area of responsibilities," he said. "It faces new challenges - the fight against terrorism, narcotics trafficking and regional threats."

"The meeting showed that the CSTO steps up its activities, and increases coordination of military-political actions," Karasin said. "The CSTO is a live organism that develops and progresses," he stressed. "Its progress is obvious," Karasin said.

"A meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council will be held in Dushanbe on October 6. The proposals to form a peacekeeper potential will be referred to the meeting. If the proposals are endorsed, we will shortly begin setting up a peacekeeper contingent," Bordyuzha said. He said the contingent could operate in the framework of the CSTO and in the framework of the United Nations.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11805273&PageNum=0