MOSCOW, 16 May (BelTA) - CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas praised the development of the organization at the CSTO summit in Moscow on 16 May, BelTA has learned.
“We have come a long way over the years from the idea of collective defense to the international multi-purpose organization. I would like to congratulate you, esteemed heads of state, on the anniversary and thank you for your great work on the establishment, development and strengthening of our organization. Without your constant attention and support it would not have been possible,” he stressed.
According to the CSTO secretary general, an analytical review of the organization's activities was prepared for the summit. During the work on it “there was a strong feeling that we had something to be proud of”. “As part of the organization there is a successfully functioning mechanism for the coordination of foreign policy activities. A consolidated position of our states on topical issues of the regional and global agenda is formed within its framework. Although I agree with Aleksandr Grigoryevich [Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who spoke at the summit about the lack of coordination of the CSTO countries and their support for each other in the international arena] that it is clearly not enough today. We must not shun a consolidated response to the most acute issues,” said Stanislav Zas.
In his words, during its history the CSTO has established interaction with international and regional organizations and their specialized structures. “The principle of priority of political and diplomatic means in achieving the goals of the CSTO has been preserved and, most importantly, is cultivated. This is one of the main backbones of our organization,” he continued. During these years the CSTO power potential has increased significantly, its structure, equipment and level of training of command bodies and formations of the collective security system has improved.
Stanislav Zas considers the development of a unified system of training of command and troops an important achievement of the CSTO. The highest form of this training is the CSTO exercises, which are regularly held. The secretary general also informed the summit participants that the formation of collective tools to ensure biological security was almost complete, and this topic was also on the agenda of the event, as well as the improvement of crisis response.
