DUSHANBE, September 21, 2015, Asia-Plus – A meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Coordinating Council on Emergencies will take place in Sochi, Russia on September 22.

The CSTO Secretariat says the meeting will be presided by Kazakh Deputy Interior Ministry, Vladimir Bozhko, who will report on the results of the CSTO summit that took place in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on September 15.

The meeting will focus on issues related to establishment of the Russian-Armenian humanitarian response center in Armenia, implementation of an agreement on training of personnel for law enforcement, emergency response and special services of the CSTO member nations at higher educational institutions of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the mechanism of the emergency response procedures.

The meeting participants will also discuss functioning of the CSTO common information space, draft regulations on the CSTO coordinators sent to an emergency-affected state and use of the training potential of the Rock City-Astana training ground for training of rescue teams of the CSTO member nations.

A decision to set up the CSTO Coordinating Council on emergencies was taken at a session of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Dushanbe in October 2007.  The main tasks of the Council are to coordinate interaction among the ministries and departments of the CSTO countries in matters aimed at preventing and eliminating the aftermath of emergencies.

The regional security organization was initially formed in 1992 for a five-year period by the members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) -- Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which were joined by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Belarus the following year.  A 1994 treaty reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force, and prevented signatories from joining any “other military alliances or other groups of states” directed against members states.  The CST was then extended for another five-year term in April 1999, and was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.  In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO.  Uzbekistan that suspended its membership in 1999 returned to the CSTO again in 2006 after it came under international criticism for its brutal crackdown of antigovernment demonstrations in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005.  On June 28, 2012, Uzbekistan announced that it has suspended its membership of the CSTO, saying the organization ignores Uzbekistan and does not consider its views.  The CSTO is currently an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.