Joint Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of the Security Councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization

On November 22, 2023 Minsk hosted a joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization under the chairmanship of the Republic of Belarus. 

The meeting was attended by the Foreign and Defense Ministers, Secretaries of Security Councils of the CSTO Member States, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov and Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Anatoly Sidorov.

The parties exchanged views on the international and regional agenda with a focus on current events and trends in the security situation in the CSTO area of responsibility.

As emphasised by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Aleinik, the Belarusian Chairmanship fell during the period of "a systemic crisis in international relations and an unprecedented aggravation of the military and political situation on the Eurasian continent". Despite all the difficulties, Belarus carried out all the planned activities. Minsk, without exaggeration, became the capital of the CSTO - meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Secretaries of the Security Councils, Parliamentarians, and Coordination structures of the Organization responsible for countering transnational challenges and threats to security were held here. In October, a large-scale international conference on Eurasian security was held with the active participation of member states and the Organisation's Secretariat.

The participants discussed coordination of the foreign policy stances of CSTO Member States and CSTO cooperation with other international organizations in order to counter modern challenges and threats to security.

The Ministers for Foreign Affairs, the Ministers of Defense and the Secretaries of the Security Councils touched upon military cooperation and the problem of jointly combating international terrorism.

Approves the new structure of the Joint Command of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces and the list of training ranges and training centres allocated by CSTO member States to ensure the formation, training and cohesion of the Organization's Collective Peacekeeping Forces. The Regulation on the basic research organization in the field of information security of the armed forces of the CSTO Member States was approved.

Kazakhstan briefly presented the priority areas of the CSTO's activities for the period of its forthcoming chairmanship in the Organization in 2024.

Following the results of the meeting, the draft documents planned to be signed during the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council were approved.

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