Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

In News

• A Russia-led security bloc (CSTO) is planning to hold large military drills in Tajikistan.

Rationale for military exercise in Tajikistan

• Tajikistan is the only country out of the six-member bloc led by Russia that shares a border with Afghanistan.
• The series of drills will include the largest exercise this year among CSTO nations.
• As a  collective measure to ensure Tajikistan’s security in case of an “aggravation” on its border with Afghanistan.

Image Courtesy: Kabar

About Collective Security Treaty Organization

• It is an intergovernmental military alliance that was signed on 15 May 1992.
• In 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States—Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—signed the Collective Security Treaty
  • This is also referred to as the “Tashkent Pact” or “Tashkent Treaty”.
• Three other post-Soviet states—Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia—signed the next year and the treaty took effect in 1994.
• Five years later, six of the nine—all but Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan—agreed to renew the treaty for five more years, and in 2002 those six agreed to create the CSTO as a military alliance.

Source: TH