Andrei Kartapolov: The CSTO has established itself as an authoritative actor in international relations recognized at the UN level

“Today, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is an established member of international relations, recognized at the level of the United Nations. And, as events of early January showed, it has become a reliable and objectively needed multifunctional system of joint military and political activities of Member States aimed at ensuring their safe development,” said Andrei Kartapolov, Chairman of the Committee on Defence of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in his speech at the meeting of chairpersons of foreign affairs committees of the parliaments of the CSTO States.

After giving a detailed chronological account of the progress and specifics of the CSTO collective peacekeeping operation in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan in early January 2022, Andrei Kartapolov emphasized, “Despite the success of the CSTO mission, the Kazakhstan events themselves and the course of the operation clearly demonstrated the need for further improvement of the bloc.”

The experience of the first operation of the CSTO Peacekeeping Contingent in Kazakhstan has proved, Andrei Kartapolov said, that the request response mechanism “has considerable room for improvement and should be revised towards shorter decision-making times, which is necessary in the current circumstances.”

“It is difficult to imagine the consequences of the peacekeeping contingent being deployed not in a matter of hours or days, as it was actually the case, but, say, a week or two later. It probably would not have been needed by that time,” said the Chairman of the Committee on Defence of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

“Even though it was quick, it still took time for the heads of state of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan to agree with the parliaments on the relevant decisions, as the national legislation requires,” said Andrei Kartapolov.

In order to improve the decision-making mechanism regarding CSTO peacekeeping operations, Andrei Kartapolov proposed to actively use the model laws of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

“The experience of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in elaboration of separate acts on peacekeeping issues already allows to draw conclusions about the necessity of coordinated and purposeful improvement of the national legislation in this area, among which, in our view, the priorities are unconditional and consistent implementation of all regulations of the agreement into the national legislation of the Member States, which includes the adoption of special laws that regulate peacekeeping activities of the states and the status of the peacekeeping forces based on the 2021 CSTO model law On Peacekeeping Activities and Peacekeeping Forces,” believes Andrei Kartapolov, recalling that “presently there are no such laws in a number of states.”

According to the parliamentarian, it is also necessary to improve the legislative acts on state civil and law enforcement service on the basis of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Recommendations on the Harmonization of the CSTO Member States’ Legislation in the Field of Public Service Similar in Status to Military Service.