CSTO prepares agreement on joint air forces, mobile air defence

A document on the organisation of collective air forces and mobile air defence units within the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) has already been prepared and will be signed on June 3, according to CSTO Secretary General Taalatbek Masadykov.

“We have also prepared a document that will be signed today and submitted to the Collective Security Council — it concerns the organisation of collective air forces and the establishment of mobile air defence units,” he said following a meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of CSTO member states.

The CSTO is a regional security alliance made up of several post-Soviet countries, with a focus on collective defence and military cooperation. It was officially formed in 2002, evolving from the Collective Security Treaty signed in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Its member states currently include Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia, although Yerevan has significantly reduced its participation in the organisation in recent years. Over time, some countries, such as Uzbekistan, have joined the organisation but later withdrawn.

Under its charter, the CSTO functions as a mutual defence pact, where an attack on one member is considered an attack on all, a principle similar to NATO’s Article 5.

The organisation’s primary areas of activity include conducting joint military exercises, coordinating counterterrorism efforts, enhancing border security cooperation, standardising arms systems among member states, and carrying out peacekeeping missions.

By Jeyhun Aghazada