On the regular meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO

Dushanbe, May 19, 2021 - Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi took part in a session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

During the event, the Foreign Ministers discussed a wide range of issues related to the CSTO's current activities and prospects for its development, and exchanged views on pressing issues on the international agenda.

Mr. Tileuberdi briefed the participants on the position of Kazakhstan regarding the cooperation within the Organization, and made several proposals aimed at further comprehensive development of this organization.

Special attention was paid to the implementation of the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the establishment of a new institution - the Special representative of the CSTO Secretary General for peacekeeping, which he proposed at the December CSTO Summit in 2020.

The Minister expressed gratitude to his colleagues and the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas for a substantive dialogue and practical ideas for the implementation of the proposal of the President of Kazakhstan.

Following the meeting, the ministers approved draft documents, several of which will be submitted to the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, scheduled to be held in the fourth quarter of this year in Dushanbe. These documents include the Agreement on jurisdiction and legal assistance in cases related to the temporary presence of forces and means of the collective security system in the territories of the CSTO member states and the Action Plan dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the CSTO.

The foreign ministers also adopted four political statements - "On the 75th Anniversary of the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg", "On strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention", "On cooperation of the CSTO with states and international organizations", and "On the extension of the Treaty between Russia and the United States on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons".

The CSTO is an international regional organization established in 2002, whose members, along with Kazakhstan, include Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

This year the Council of Foreign Ministers is presided by the Republic of Tajikistan, in accordance with the rotating system adopted by the CSTO.