Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

CIS CSTO forms own peacekeeping forces: NK first theater of ops?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • CIS CSTO forms own peacekeeping forces: NK first theater of ops?

    Agency WPS
    DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
    August 24, 2007 Friday



    CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY FORMS ITS ON PEACEKEEPING FORCES;
    Nagorno-Karabakh may become their first theater of operations

    Nurani

    BAKU FEARS THAT THE CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION WILL
    FOCUS ITS PEACEKEEPING ACTIVITY ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH; General
    Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha promises establishment of the
    peacekeeping contingent "in the nearest future".


    Seeing the Commonwealth become more and more amorphous, Russian
    diplomacy predictably takes measures to strengthen the military
    alliance of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. "A
    meeting of the working group at the level of the deputy heads of key
    ministries of member states [which took place at one of the mansions
    of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow - Ekho is sufficient proof
    that the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization is advancing
    dynamism and coordination of military-political actions," Grigori
    Karasin, State Secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said. "The
    CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization is a living organism that
    evolves and makes progress."

    Colonel General Nikolai Bordyuzha, General Secretary of the CIS
    Collective Security Treaty Organization, outlined specific directions
    of "evolution and progress". Bordyuzha informed journalists that the
    CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization might decide to establish
    its own peacekeeping forces this autumn. "The peacekeeping contingent
    will operate both in the zone of responsibility of the CIS Collective
    Security Treaty Organization and, authorized by the UN, beyond it,"
    Bordyuzha said. ITAR-TASS news agency reports that Collective
    Security Council of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
    will meet in Dushanbe on October 6 and that "suggestions concerning
    the establishment of the peacekeeping potential" will be made there.
    If the suggestions are accepted to be acted upon, Bordyuzha said,
    establishment of the contingent will be launched "in the nearest
    future". Bordyuzha even outlined the new tasks the CIS Collective
    Security Treaty Organization is facing. They include "the war on
    terrorism, trafficking, and regional threats."

    The CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization includes Russia,
    Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
    Unlike in GUAM where practically every member state, save for the
    Ukraine, has a suspended conflict on its territory, Armenia is the
    only member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
    involved in a local conflict. Moreover, the Azerbaijani-Armenian
    conflict is the only one nowadays where the cease-fire regime is
    maintained without peacekeepers. As for the idea of Russia's
    exclusive peacekeeping presence in Nagorno-Karabakh, it has been
    discussed since 1993.

    What arguments Russia will use this time to persuade Azerbaijan to
    accept the offer is immaterial at this point and for the purposes of
    this article. What counts is this: Bordyuzha was recently asked the
    question "Baku all but admits its readiness to use the sheer strength
    of arms to solve the problem of the territories occupied by Armenia.
    Will the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization deploy its
    military potential if Azerbaijan actually went for it and attacked
    Armenia?" His answer was laconic and right to the point. "There is
    Article 4 of the CIS Collective Security Treaty which plainly states
    that aggression against a member state is viewed by all other member
    states as an aggression against all. What else is there to say?" The
    Russian Embassy in Baku hastened in with a denouncement. Russian
    diplomats kept telling whoever would listen that "automatic"
    involvement in the war on Armenia's side was out of the question.
    Bordyuzha meanwhile made it plain that an idea like that was
    entertained in the corridors of what is known as the Arbat Military
    District.

    Along with everything else, Russia's accomplishments as a peacekeeper
    in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Trans-Dniester region are not
    precisely something to take pride in. In practically all these
    episodes, Moscow openly sided up with separatists and made its
    peacekeepers guarantors of the security of the regimes of Smirnov,
    Kokoity, Ardzinba-Hadjimba-Bagapsh, and so on. Moreover, military
    presence of this sort is actively used as an instrument of pressure
    on "the obstinate". The missile scandal between Moscow and Tbilisi is
    textbook proof.

    In any case, Baku is not exactly happy with the peacekeeping ideas
    entertained by the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization.

    Source: Ekho (Baku), August 22, 2007, EV

    Translated by A. Ignatkin
Working...
X