MOSCOW, 9 March (BelTA) – An institute a special representative of the CSTO secretary general for peacekeeping may be set up at the CSTO, CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zainetdinov told BelTA following a meeting of CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas and Kazakhstan's Defense Minister Nurlan Yermekbayev in Nur Sultan on 9 March.
The parties discussed the joint operational and combat training activities in 2021 and a plan to provide the CSTO Collective Rapid Response Force with necessary equipment. “The parties paid special attention to improving the level of training of the CSTO peacekeeping forces and providing them with modern weapons, military and special hardware, special means taking into account the possible involvement of CSTO peacekeeping forces in UN peacekeeping operations via a coordinating state - one of the CSTO member states,” Vladimir Zainetdinov said. “Thus, the CSTO peacekeeping force comprises a Russian medical unit, a combined unit in the future to be complemented with representatives (specialists) of the CSTO member states. Consideration was also given to the initiative of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev voiced during the December 2020 session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, namely to set up a new institute in the CSTO - special representative of the CSTO secretary general for peacekeeping.”
Stanislav Zas and Nurlan Yermekbayev considered the issues on the agenda of the upcoming April meeting of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council and the preparation of the collective force exercises scheduled for this year. They include the CSTO joint exercise Interaction 2021, a special exercise of the intelligence forces Search 2021 and exercises of the logistics forces Echelon 2021 in Tajikistan. Russia will host a training exercise of the CSTO peacekeeping forces "Unbreakable Brotherhood 2021" and an operational exercise with the command of the Central Asian Rapid Deployment Collective Force.
"The parties also reviewed the draft plan for joint training of the CSTO collective security system for 2022," added Vladimir Zainetdinov.
