TSAMTO, April 29. The day of formation of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is April 28.
On this day in 2003, in Dushanbe, the Collective Security Council, guided by the need to create a military staff body responsible for implementing the tasks of the military component of the Collective Security Treaty, decided "To establish a Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization."
Today, the CSTO Joint Staff, headed by Colonel-General Andrei Serdyukov, is entrusted by the heads of state with tasks related to coalition military construction, joint operational and combat training of military components (Collective Forces) CSTO, military-technical cooperation, coordination of joint training of personnel and specialists for the armed forces of the CSTO member states, as well as the organization of the functioning of the CSTO Crisis Response Center.
For more than two decades, with the direct participation of the military personnel of the Joint Staff, the necessary regulatory framework governing the Organization's activities has been developed and is being continuously improved. To date, 62 international agreements have been concluded on the most fundamental issues of interstate cooperation in the field of collective security, and more than 1,800 documents have been signed at the level of heads of State, secretaries of security councils, as well as heads of key ministries of defense and foreign affairs of our states.
Within the framework of coalition military construction, the Joint Staff, together with the CSTO Secretariat, interested ministries and departments of the CSTO member states, pays great attention to the development of all components of the Troops (Collective Forces) The CSTO. With the organizational and coordinating role of the Joint Staff, the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Central Asian Region (CSDB CAR), the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (CSR), the Collective Aviation Forces and the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces are being further developed. In order to ensure an adequate and effective response to modern challenges and threats to collective security, work is underway to create new elements in the composition of the Troops (Collective Forces) The CSTO. So, in 2022, due to the emergence of threats to biological safety, the decision of the heads of state created a joint formation of RCB protection and medical support.
At the present stage, the Joint Staff pays great attention to improving the CSTO crisis response mechanisms. In the interests of improving the monitoring of the military-political situation, increasing the reliability of information, as well as timely identification of challenges and threats in the regions of collective security, the Joint Staff cooperates with the Coordination Service of the Commanders of the Border Troops and the Anti–Terrorist Center of the CIS member States.
Joint operational and combat training of the forces and means of the collective security system has become one of the priorities of the Joint Staff since its formation. Almost every year when organizing the role of Staff in the format Organization in the regions of collective security Treaty organisation conducted a series of joint and special exercises, including CSIS CAR Rubezh (conducted in 2004); with the CSTO military "Cooperation" (2009); with the Peacekeeping forces of the CSTO "Indestructible brotherhood" (2012), with the forces and means of the intelligence departments and services "Search" (2016); the Collective air force "Air bridge" (2018), with the forces and means of the logistics of the "Echelon" (2019); the joint formation of the NBC protection and medical support "Barrier" (2023). Since 2017, the highest form of joint training in the CSTO format has been the joint operational and strategic exercise "Combat Brotherhood". In total, over the years of the Organization's existence, more than 80 joint exercises have been conducted with various components of the Troops (Collective Forces) The CSTO.
In the field of military-technical cooperation, joint work with the CSTO Secretariat continues on the formation and improvement of the Organization's regulatory framework, as well as the implementation of practical measures to equip Troops (Collective Forces). The CSTO is equipped with modern weapons, military and special equipment, and special means.
To date, at the initiative of the Joint Staff, the decisions of the CSTO bodies have given the status of basic educational and methodological organizations to 12 military educational institutions that provide training in the following specialties: combined arms, air defense, missile forces and artillery, military air defense, communications, logistics, information security, electronic warfare, training personnel of the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces, medical and pharmaceutical specialties, as well as training personnel responsible for ensuring national security and defense capability of the Organization's member states, and the status of basic research organizations is assigned to 8 specialized scientific and educational organizations.
In modern conditions of increasing challenges and threats to collective security, the Joint Staff, as the most important element of the CSTO collective security system, continues to carry out activities to ensure the Organization's readiness to respond adequately and effectively to possible crisis situations, and to solve tasks related to the development of Troops (Collective Forces) The CSTO and ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Organization's member states, the Information and Mass Communications Department of the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
