All news

No cooling in relations between post-Soviet security bloc members — CSTO secretary general

Possibility of using plants in Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan for the production of military equipment earlier manufactured in Ukraine is currently under close scrutiny

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) may have different views and approaches on certain points, but there is no cooling of relations between them, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told a news conference in Moscow on Friday.

"I have not felt any cooling among the member states or their attempts to distance themselves from the CSTO processes," he said.

Currently, the organization comprises six members: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

"I do not deny that we have different views and approaches on certain points, but this is the meaning of international organizations to seek consensus," said Bordyuzha.

Speaking of import substitution within the CSTO framework, he said that in Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will be in charge of that. Deputy prime ministers of the CSTO member countries responsible for the defense industry will be the commission members. "This will make it possible to maximally use our potential for the production of military equipment, which was previously produced in the Ukrainian territory," he said.

Bordyuzha said that the possibility of using plants in Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan is currently under close scrutiny.

Large-scale exercises of CSTO peacekeeping forces will be held in Armenia in September-October. In addition, major manoeuvres of the organization’s Collective Rapid Reaction Force and special forces of anti-terrorism agencies will be conducted this year, said the CSTO secretary general.