Friday, April 26 2019 16:07

ArmInfo. At the next session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) of the countries members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which will be held on May 22 in Bishkek, Armenia's proposals on changing the  organization's charter can be agreed.  About this RBC told the  diplomats of the two countries - members of the organization. In  total, the CSTO includes six countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

According to the portal, after the amendments are approved by the  ministers, they will be submitted for approval by the leaders of the  countries who will gather for the session of the CSTO Collective  Security Council scheduled for the autumn.

"The essence of the amendments to the charter proposed by Armenia is  to prescribe the procedure for early termination of the powers of the  current secretary general - this position, as suggested in Yerevan,  should be occupied by a representative of the country from which he  was appointed on rotation until the expiration of the three-year  mandate. Until 2020 the representative of Russia Valery Semerikov  will remain Acting Secretary General of the year, after that the post  will go to Belarus for three years, "one of the diplomats told RBC  and confirmed the second.

"The agenda of the CSTO Foreign Ministerial Council and the package  of documents planned for signing are currently being formed. We will  provide more complete information closer to the date of the event.   Following the Ministerial Meeting, we'll inform you about the  decisions made," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova  told RBC about a possible change in the organization's charter.

Since April 2017, the post of CSTO Secretary General has been  occupied by the representative of Armenia - Yuri Khachaturov.  According to the charter of the organization, the Secretary General  is approved for three years, from each of the member states in  rotation, alphabetically. Khachaturov became the first Secretary  General, approved on this principle. Prior to that, since 2003, the  representative of Russia, Nikolay Bordyuzha, was the Secretary  General. In 2018, the new Armenian government withdrew Khachaturov  from the post of general secretary - in May he was charged with  overthrowing the state system (in the case of dispersing mass  demonstrations in March 2008 after the presidential election), and in  August Armenia began the procedure for its withdrawal. On October 30,  the decision on the early termination of his powers entered into  force, at the same time the duties of the head of the secretariat  were assigned to Deputy Secretary General Semerikov.  From the moment  of Khachaturov's recall, Yerevan insisted that another representative  of Armenia should take his place - until 2020, the expiration date of  the mandate, but other countries did not agree, in particular  Belarus. The fact is that the organization's charter does not state  that in the event of an early withdrawal of the head of the  organization's secretariat, a representative of the same state should  take his place.  Minsk insists that the post of the Secretary General  pass to Belarus as the next one in alphabetical order.  Last  December, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, approved  the candidacy of the Secretary of State of the Security Council of  Belarus, Stanislav Zas, for the post of CSTO Secretary General. In  the same month, the presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan  and Russia approved candidacy of Zas.  Armenia did not support this  decision, therefore, the acting Secretary General for 2019 remained  Semerikov.  Without reforming the charter, Yerevan refuses to approve  a new general secretary - a representative of Belarus (according to  the organization's charter, such decisions should be taken  unanimously by all the CSTO members).