MOSCOW, 9 February (BelTA) - The CSTO operation in Kazakhstan demonstrated unity and readiness to jointly protect its interests, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Stanislav Zas said at the conference "Collective Security in a New Era: Experience and Prospects of the CSTO" organized by the Valdai International Discussion Club with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow on 9 February, BelTA has learned.
Stanislav Zas said that the decision to deploy peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan was made by the CSTO Collective Security Council based on the request of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, on Articles 2 and 4 of the Collective Security Treaty and the CSTO basic agreement on peacekeeping activities. “The decision was implemented swiftly,” he said.
CSTO secretary general named three main results following the peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan. “The first and most important outcome is that this peacekeeping operation has really contributed to turning the situation around and stabilizing Kazakhstan, stopping the bloodshed, terrorist attacks. it has really helped stabilize the situation in Kazakhstan,” he stressed.
“The second outcome is a social and political one. We, all the CSTO states, have demonstrated and confirmed our unity and readiness to defend together the security and interests of our states,” the secretary general said.
“The third is a military-technical one. We have gained practical experience and made sure that the forces and means that our organization has and the mechanisms of their use, which have been developed over 20 years, work and help us solve the tasks that our organization faces,” Stanislav Zas said.
In his words, the CSTO is now carefully studying the experience gained in Kazakhstan. “We will adjust, first of all, the crisis response system. We need to be able to quickly and efficiently use the available potential in any conditions and in any place within our area of responsibility,” the CSTO secretary general said.
