Monday, June 11 2018 14:45

ArmInfo.The Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states have gathered in Almaty for a meeting of the Council of Foreign  Ministers.

The regular sitting has started its work under the chairmanship of  Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, "Kazinform"  international news agency informs. Kazakh FM congratulated his  Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on his recent appointment.  Abdrakhmanov also congratulated his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov  on Russia's Day and the upcoming opening of football world  championship. 

The agenda included 12 issues. The Ministers debated over the issues  of foreign policy coordination within the Organization, pressing  issues of international and regional security. The parties also  shared views on countering contemporary trans-border threat and  challenges, first of all, counterterrorism issues. The ministers also  discussed the CSTO peacekeeping constituent in the context of the  CSTO Road Map (action plan) for 2018-2021.  The draft of the  statement "On the situation around the INF Treaty", the draft  decisions of the CSTO Collective Security Council "On the Protocol on  the interaction between the CSTO and the International Committee of  the Red Cross and the Crescent", "On the Action Plan for the  Development of a Coordinated Information Policy for the Interests of  CSTO Member States ", the draft Agreement on cooperation of the CSTO  member states in the field of combating illegal migration. 

The issue of enhancing cooperation of CSTO with international  organizations was also discussed during the meeting, Kazakh Foreign  Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and CSTO Secretary General Yuri  Khachaturov informed at the briefing after the meeting. 

According to the Minister, the meeting of the CSTO Foreign Ministers  Council was focused on the implementation of priority directions put  forward by the President of Kazakhstan at the organization's jubilee  summit in Minsk in November last year.  Particularly,  the  development of military and military-technical cooperation, CSTO  participation in the formation of the international system of global  counteraction to terrorism, the development of joint approaches to  counter threats to cyber-security and the development of concrete  measures to combat illicit drug trafficking were discussed.

In turn, CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov recalled that since  the beginning of the year there has been a purposeful work to  implement the decisions of the Council of CSTO heads of state adopted  in autumn 2017 in Minsk and the priorities proposed by Kazakhstan for  the period of chairmanship in the organization. Khachaturov also  informed that the Council had discussed the formation of conditions  for the use of the CSTO peacekeeping potential in the interests of UN  peacekeeping. The draft Joint (CSTO and UN) Road Map "Formation of  conditions for the use of the CSTO peacekeeping potential in the  interests of the global peacekeeping activities of the United Nations  (for the period 2018 - 2020)" was agreed upon. In 2 weeks, the CSTO  Deputy Secretary General will leave for  New York for a meeting with  the UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Mr.  Lacroix, at this meeting the road map will be agreed upon, everything  will be clear, "Yuri Khachaturov explained.

During the meeting, the Statement "On the Situation around the Treaty  on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles  (INF)" was signed, and the Plan of Consultations of CSTO Member  States on Foreign Policy, Security and Defense for the Second Half of  2018 - the First Half of 2019 was approved. 

The next summit of CSTO Foreign Ministerial Council is scheduled for  theQ4 of 2018 in Astana, on the thresholdd of the Collective Security  session planned on November 8, 2018.