The leaders of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) adopted a statement in connection with the 30th anniversary of the treaty and the 20th anniversary of the CSTO.
The document notes that the CSTO peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan, conducted in January 2022, confirmed readiness of the collective forces to effectively solve the tasks of ensuring the security of the member states and showed to the international community the Organization’s ability to promptly deploy and complete the mission, thereby demonstrating the high status of the CSTO in the system of international and regional organizations.
«We are satisfied with our expanding interaction in the international arena and the level of foreign policy coordination on the main items of the global and regional agendas. We are ready to deepen cooperation with the UN, other interested international and regional organizations and states,» the statement says.
The CSTO is concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and on other external borders of the organization’s member states.
Therefore, the members of the organization are ready to ensure security of the borders of the zone of responsibility of the CSTO.
«We are seriously concerned about the tendency to use force to intervene in crisis situations, bypassing generally recognized international legal norms and principles, using force or the threat of using force to resolve conflicts in violation of the UN Charter. We are concerned about the selective application of generally recognized norms and principles of international law, ignoring internationally recognized negotiation formats, unwillingness to take into account the legitimate interests of sovereign states, interference in their internal affairs, the use of unilateral sanctions and restrictions in violation of the prerogatives of the UN Security Council, demonstration of double standards, hatred and intolerance,» the CSTO leaders said.
The countries also emphasized the importance of reducing tensions on the continent and reaffirmed their readiness to establish practical cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
«We strongly condemn any attempts to falsify historical events related to our common contribution to counteracting Nazi aggression. Together we will continue to oppose any attempts to glorify Nazism and spread neo-Nazism, as well as racism and xenophobia. We express our serious concern in connection with attempts to ban at the legislative level the symbols associated with the victory over Nazism. We stress that the facts of the expulsion and extermination of the civilian population of the USSR by the Nazis and their accomplices, established in the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, should be regarded as genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union,» the statement says.
The CSTO countries also confirmed that they would consistently ensure the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of its member states, work to strengthen global and regional security, a fair settlement of international problems based on universally recognized norms and principles of international law.
