Lavrov to participate in CSTO meeting in Minsk

MINSK, May 31 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
will participate in a meeting of Foreign Ministers' Council of the
Collective Security Treaty Organisation /CSTO/ in Minsk on Tuesday.
"The agenda covers cooperation in the framework of the CSTO," Russia's
Foreign Ministry said. "Participants will discuss information of secretary
general on state and future of international situation and its influence
on security of the member states."
Traditionally, participants will discuss cooperation among foreign
ministries, including coordination of work with other international
organisations, the source said. The ministers will discuss development of
peacekeeping activities in the CSTO-UN format in compliance with the Joint
Declaration on cooperation of March 2010.
Participants in the meeting will discuss improvement of the
organisation's mechanisms to adapt it to new situations, including
improvement of effectiveness in reacting to challenges and threats to the
member states' security.
"In this context, the ministers will discuss implementation of the
decisions of the December /2010/ session of the CSTO's Council, and the
organisation's coordinating mechanisms," the source said. "They will
discuss certain administrative and organisational issues, too."
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an international
military and political union, which brought together seven countries
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan). The CSTO was founded in 1992. The presidents of the CSTO
states decided to grant the status of an international regional
organization to the CSTO on May 14, 2002, and the UN General Assembly
decided to grant an observer status to the CSTO at a UN General Assembly
annual session on December 2, 2004.
The CSTO should ward off external threats, protect the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the CSTO states without any interference in
the domestic political affairs of the CSTO states. Nikolai Bordyuzha has
been working as CSTO Secretary General since April 2003. Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashenko currently heads the CSTO Collective
Security Council, which includes the presidents of the CSTO states.