Vladimir Putin will take part in the CSTO summit in Yerevan next week, where, among other things, the improvement of the Organization's crisis response system will be discussed. The reforms of the CSTO are overdue: the work of the Organization has recently been criticized by both politicians and experts. What should be done to make the CSTO a full-fledged alternative to NATO, and what difficulties may arise during the reform of the Organization?President Vladimir Putin will personally take part in the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which will be held next Wednesday in Yerevan.
This was announced to journalists on Friday by the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov. The leaders' meeting in Yerevan will discuss issues of international and regional security, improvement of the Organization's crisis response system and joint measures to assist Armenia, TASS reports.
Also, in connection with the upcoming rotation from January 1, 2023, the Collective Security Council will consider the issue of the CSTO Secretary General, and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will present the priorities of Minsk's chairmanship in the Organization next year. Before the summit, a joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils will be held.
The summit is taking place against the backdrop of discussions about the effectiveness of the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a regional military structure – especially in comparison with another military-political organization, the North Atlantic Alliance. On the one hand, the CSTO proved to be quite effective during the January crisis in Kazakhstan. On the other hand, in June, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, criticized the Organization in his Telegram channel. "There is a CSTO organization, in my opinion. There is no benefit from this organization for Russia, and Russia helps everyone. European so-called leaders protect the interests of Ukraine. And our CSTO allies, why are you silent? Why don't you talk about your neighbors?" – he pointed out.
Kyrgyzstan's decision to cancel the command and staff exercises of the CSTO peacekeeping forces "Unbreakable Brotherhood - 2022" did not affect the reputation of the Organization in the best way. In this regard, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin said that Bishkek is trying to "distance itself from Russia" and avoid sanctions, the radio station "Says Moscow".
"I assume that, most likely, Kyrgyzstan, like some other countries, picks up signals coming, on the one hand, from the West, with which it does not want to quarrel, and on the other hand, analyzes, like all other countries, but especially the CIS countries, how strong we are, how in They are able to achieve victory in the fight against Ukraine," the deputy said, adding that "in Kyrgyzstan they felt that it was possible to slightly distance themselves from Russia."
According to experts, in order for the Organization to be no less effective than NATO, it must undergo certain changes.
"First of all, it is necessary to amend the CSTO regulation: any attack on any member of the Organization should oblige all other states to immediately defend it.
And not be guided by such terms as "request" and so on. The Chairman of the CSTO Council gives an order, and the armies of all members of the Organization must carry it out," former acting Defense Minister of Armenia, Lieutenant General Norat Ter–Grigoryants told the newspaper VIEW.
In addition, the interlocutor noted, the Organization needs to create its own fund, which, following the example of NATO, will receive contributions from all members, as well as form such collective forces, which will include a third of the army of each member country of the Organization. "The collective security of the CSTO should become the main defender for each country that is part of the Organization, and not a burden or a "suitcase without a handle", as it seems now," Ter–Grigoryants stressed.
Also, according to him, given that Belarus is the western outpost of the CSTO, and Armenia is the southern one, it is in these two countries that the main forces of the Organization should be deployed. "By the way, NATO is deploying nuclear forces on the territory of its NATO allies, for example, in Germany. I think Russia also needs to transfer part of its nuclear deterrence forces to Belarus and Armenia," the interlocutor suggests.
In addition, Ter-Grigoryants added, each country should stand up for another member of the CSTO, regardless of its foreign policy preferences. The security of the territories of the Member States of the Organization should be a priority. "For example, if there is an attack on Armenia and there are Turkish servicemen in the attacking forces, then this should not stop Russia from opposing them, regardless of the relations between Moscow and Ankara," the expert said.
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"In the end, the armies of all member countries of the Organization should have the same level of training, we need to cooperate much more and more closely on this track. If the CSTO members do not agree to all these conditions, then the Organization needs to be dispersed," Ter–Grigoryants believes.
"The Central Asian participants and Armenia have a consumer attitude towards the CSTO, they buy weapons from Russia at a discount, participate in general exercises, but do not give anything in return. This needs to be stopped. In addition, they believe that the Organization will protect the existing political regimes. Of course, this is a wrong understanding of the tasks of the CSTO, and Moscow should do everything to prevent this from happening," Belarusian military expert Alexander Alesin noted in turn.
At the same time, according to him, it is doubtful that the republics of Central Asia and Armenia will help Russia to counter external threats in the western direction and change its policy taking into account the interests of Moscow. "The recent vote in the UN on reparations has shown what's what. Therefore, Russia needs to build bilateral relations with those who are willing to cooperate more broadly, in depth," the analyst noted.
"In the 1990s, the creation of the CSTO was an attempt to preserve the USSR - this spreading shagreen skin in order to level the destruction of the country. At that time, the Russian authorities were glad of any alliances. But now the world has changed, the CSTO does not meet modern requirements. I think that in the near future the Organization will need to be re–created, and then the countries of Central Asia will be forced to choose which center of influence to join - Russia, the United States or China. In principle, it would be more appropriate to replace the CSTO with bilateral agreements of a military nature," the Belarusian military analyst believes. Recall that one of the examples of such a bilateral "bundle" can be considered the military obligations of the partners in the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
In addition to the clause on the urgent and mandatory collective protection of any member of the Organization, a ban on military cooperation outside the treaty should be introduced into the CSTO Charter, according to corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences Alexander Bartosh. For example, military cooperation with the countries of the same NATO bloc.
"In addition, the participation of the Organization's members in events and projects that contribute to improving the security of the CSTO and each state separately, such as assistance in the delivery of personnel and equipment to certain areas, military–technical cooperation, should also be binding. By the way, ideally, these two concepts – the security of the Organization and each state separately – should almost completely coincide," Bartosz said.
"However, the cooperation of the countries should be carried out not only on the military line, but also consist in political support on various international platforms. Russia should certainly raise all these issues at the next CSTO summit," the analyst believes.
Rafael Fakhrutdinov
