Twenty-nine years to Collective Security Treaty

Twenty-nine years ago, on May 15, 1999, heads of six Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States – Republic of Armenia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Uzbekistan – signed Collective Security Treaty in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan) that later gave rise to Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Currently, the Treaty unites six states: Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation and Republic of Tajikistan.
Back then, 29 years ago, this integration aspiration was motivated by the desire of the young states established after the collapse of the USSR to recreate a common defence space while their own statehood was being formed.
As Tatyana Moskalkova, Doctor of Law, Doctor of Philosophy and Human Rights Commissioner of the Russian Federation, points out in her 2014 book Parlamentskaya Assambleya ODKB (“CSTO Parliamentary Assembly”), the Collective Security Treaty of May 15, 1992 is indeed a landmark document for the contemporary history of post-Soviet international relations that stipulates the establishment of a system of friendly relations between the Treaty’s Member States; refraining from the threat or use of force in inter-state relations between them and with other countries; carrying out of mutual consultations on major international issues; formation of the Collective Security Council; enabling the deployment and functioning of collective security facilities on the territory of the Treaty’s Member States; prohibition to join other military alliances or to participate in any state groups, as well as to act against another Member State of the Treaty.
On May 14, 2002, at the Moscow session of the CSC it was decided to turn the CST into a full international organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
On October 7, 2002, the CSTO Charter and the Agreement on Legal Status of the CSTO were signed in Chisinau, ratified by all Member States and entered into force on September 18, 2003.
On December 2, 2004, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on granting the CSTO an observer status in the Organization.
On November 16, 2006, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly (CSTO PA) was established at the premises of the IPA CIS, the Organization’s interparliamentary cooperation body.