DUSHANBE, July 13, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- President Emomali Rahmon today is receiving the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha, who has arrived in Tajikistan on a four-day working visit.

A well-informed source in the Tajik government says the sides are expected to discuss issues related to providing regional security, military and military-technical cooperation between the CSTO member nations.

He added that it could not be ruled out that the current situation in Afghanistan, joint fight against international terrorism, religious extremism and trafficking in drugs and weapons would also be among major topics of the talks.

During his stay in Tajikistan, Mr. Bordyuzha is also supposed to hold talks with senior representatives from the Security Council as well as heads of a number of power-wielding structures of the country.

CSTO is the regional security organization that 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; the treaty was signed by the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.  In October 2002, the group was renamed as the CSTO.  Uzbekistan became a full participant of the organization on June 23, 2006.  The CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organization cooperation.  The CSTO is an observer organization at the United Nations General Assembly.

The organization now groups Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.