Uzbekistan Not Planning To Join CSTO
February 13, 2006
13 February 2006 -- Uzbekistan is not planning to join the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the organization's secretary-general, Nikolai Bordyuzha, said on 13 February.
The CSTO aims to deepen political as well as military cooperation between its six member-states, which are Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Bordyuzha, who visited Uzbekistan on 6-7 February, said Uzbekistan may join in the future, but that the Uzbek authorities will decide only after they have "understood the usefulness of cooperation with the organization."
On 25 January, Uzbekistan became a member of the Eurasian Economic Community (EES), whose membership includes five of the six members of the CSTO. Armenia is the exception.
(Interfax, ITAR-TASS)