At the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov warned of Western attempts to damage the CSTO alliance

“We have discussed the situation in Central Asia, including in view of the attempts made by our Western colleagues – the US, EU and NATO – towards the Central Asian region. The attempts to strengthen their influence in the region by damaging relations within the CSTO, within the CIS, within the SCO and the Eurasian Economic Union,” Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, said at a joint press conference in Dushanbe on Friday following the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS Member Nations. This is reported by RIA Novosti. According to the agency, Sergei Lavrov said that Russian Federation and its CSTO partners were against “unilateral actions aimed at breaking existing economic, trade, logistical and transport links.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also said that the meeting of the CIS foreign ministers discussed the strengthening of partnership within the Commonwealth of Independent States, granting the CIS the observer status to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the developments in Ukraine and a number of other issues.