DUSHANBE (TajikTTA) — Joint tactical exercises of the collective rapid deployment forces of the Central Asian region of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) code named Rubezh-2018 will be held in Tajikistan.

Frontier-2016

Armoured Tigers during a joint tactical exercise of collective rapid reaction forces (CRRF) of CSTO in 2016, in Balykchy in Kyrgyzstan.

The information is confirmed by the Tajik Defense Ministry:

The exercises will be held in late October in Tajikistan at the Kharbmaydon range.

Currently, negotiations are under way to prepare for the exercise Rubezh-2018. Delegations of the armed forces of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan will discuss the preliminary intent of the exercise, the issues of security, and inspect the area and the infrastructure of the site of forthcoming exercises.

In 2016, the exercise Rubezh took place in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. More than 1,000 servicemen of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia took part in the manoeuvres.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance that was signed on 15 May 1992. In 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States — Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — signed the Collective Security Treaty (also referred to as the “Tashkent Pact” or “Tashkent Treaty”). Three other post-Soviet states (Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia) signed the next year and the treaty took effect in 1994. Five years later, six of the nine — all but Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan — agreed to renew the treaty for five more years, and in 2002 those six agreed to create the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a military alliance. Uzbekistan rejoined the CSTO in 2006 but withdrew in 2012.