Anatoly Sidorov: Joint training of military personnel for the CSTO States is a major cooperation priority

On July 12–13 in Moscow at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, heads of the host training organizations for military personnel for the CSTO Member States and CSTO host research organizations studying military cooperation held a meeting to discuss improvement of the training of military personnel for the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States, the CSTO Joint Staff reports.
Colonel General Anatoly Sidorov, the CSTO Chief of the General Staff, said in his speech at the meeting that joint training of military personnel and specialists for the armed forces of the CSTO Member States was Organization’s priority of the military cooperation. According to him, the military training system is designed to provide high-quality military training that meets modern requirements.
“Joint training is carried out in four CSTO Member States: Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Every year within the joint training system, about 2,600 servicemen of the CSTO Member States are trained in 58 military educational institutions in more than 750 specialties. Over the years of cooperation in the interests of the CSTO about 20,000 servicemen have been trained in universities of the CSTO Member States,” said Anatoly Sidorov.
In order to solve urgent problems in joint training system, in September 2021, Defence Ministers Council and the Committee of the CSTO Security Council Secretaries adopted a plan to improve the joint training system of the military personnel of the CSTO Member States. The plan includes hands-on joint training of military personnel and development of research activities within the CSTO. A network of host training and research organizations has been established and is successfully operating within the CSTO, training military personnel and specialists, disseminating advanced technologies in education, methodology and research, providing academic support for the development of forces and assets of the CSTO collective security system.
The status of the CSTO host training organizations was given to 11 military educational institutions which provide training of combined arms, air defence, missile forces and artillery, army air defence corps, communications, logistics, information security, electronic warfare, personnel training of CSTO Peacekeeping Force, medical and pharmaceutical specialties, as well as the training of personnel responsible for ensuring national security and defence capabilities of the Member States.
In addition, seven specialized research organizations and military educational institutions have been given the status of host research organizations involved in scientific, theoretical and practical study of creation, improvement, preparation and use of the forces and assets of Collective Security Treaty Organization collective security system in the field of air defence, missile defence, logistics, medical support, electronic warfare, military and technical cooperation and CSTO air force development and use.
The CSTO Chief of the Joint Staff also spoke about setting up research work during joint exercises in the CSTO format. In order to study topical matters of the development of forces and assets of the CSTO collective security system, representatives (experts) of defence agencies, host training and research organizations and the CSTO Joint Staff are involved in annual joint exercises held within the framework of the Organization. Research groups, taking part in joint exercises, develop practical recommendations on addressing problematic issues and determining directions for further development of coalition groups of CSTO troops (collective forces) and their use.
“The training meeting discussed a wide range of pressing issues on improving the system of joint training of CSTO Member States military personnel. The participants shared experience of organizing joint group training of highly qualified military personnel, using unified curricula and training plans, in the specialties required for the formations, bodies, military units and subunits of the armed forces, as well as other troops and military formations that are part of the CSTO collective security forces and assets. During the event, common approaches were developed to improve the system of joint training of military personnel for the purposes of CSTO Member States and research activities,” a spokesperson said.
The meeting was attended by representatives of military-training management bodies of defence departments of the CSTO Member States, the Joint Staff and the CSTO Secretariat, management of host training and research organizations, as well as other military educational institutions.