Military and Military-Technical Assistance Practiced at the CSTO Command and Staff Training

From March 16 to March 19, the CSTO is holding a strategic command-and-staff training of the Joint Staff, the CSTO Secretariat and all involved ministries and institutions of the CSTO Member States, supervised by Andrei Serdyukov, Colonel General and Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, the CSTO press service reports.

The event is aimed at working out proposals to be submitted to CSTO bodies regarding the provision of military and military-technical assistance to the Organization’s Member States.

Andrei Serdyukov, Colonel General and Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, in his opening remarks noted that "the strategic command-and-staff training is taking place at a time when we observe increased confrontation at the global and regional levels, with 'zones of instability' moving closer to the area of responsibility of CSTO Member States."

According to the plan, the strategic command-and-staff training is conducted in four stages. The goal is to progressively work through making collective decisions on the formation and deployment of all units of the CSTO collective security system’s forces and assets, as well as developing a set of measures to respond to crisis situations in the Eastern European and Central Asian regions of collective security.

At the designated signal, the personnel of the Joint Staff and the Organization’s Secretariat was alerted and assembled. The functional groups of the CSTO Crisis Response Centre and the command posts of national bodies authorized to interact with said groups were deployed.

This year, representatives of the CSTO Permanent Council, the CSTO Secretariat, the CIS Anti-Terrorism Centre and the Coordination Service of the Council of Commanders of Border Troops are also participating in the training.

The first stage focuses on preparing proposals and drafting decisions by the Organization’s bodies regarding the formation and rapid deployment of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Forces and the provision of military and technical assistance to a member state of the Organization.

The second stage focuses on preparing proposals and drafting collective decisions regarding the formation and deployment of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Central Asian Region, and the provision of military and technical assistance.

The third stage involves practicing tasks related to the preparation of a peacekeeping operation on the territory of a simulated CSTO member state.

The fourth stage is aimed at practicing formation, deployment, and use of the Organization's joint NBC protection and medical support unit.

Each stage concludes with a review of draft decisions developed by the Organization’s bodies regarding the formation, deployment, and use of the units of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces), all-round support for task forces, and the provision of military and technical assistance to states.

Upon conclusion of the strategic command and staff training, all draft decisions developed by CSTO bodies will be communicated to the Member States as reference materials for planning the joint and special exercises to be conducted under the Organization’s auspices in September–October this year, on the territories of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Belarus.