DUSHANBE (Asia-Plus) – A meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Foreign Ministers’ Council took place in Dushanbe on April 2. The meeting brought together foreign ministers of Tajikistan (Sirojiddin Aslov), Armenia (Edvard Nalbaldyan), Belarus (Vladimir Makey), Kazakhstan (Erlan Idrisov), Kyrgyzstan (Erlan Abdyldayev), and Russia (Sergey Lavrov) to review modern problems of international policy and measures to address modern challenges and threats.

As Dushanbe chairs the organization in 2015, the meeting was chaired by Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov.

Aslov said the ministers discussed the situation in the CSTO area of responsibility (AoR) and in neighbouring regions, including Afghanistan. Tajik minister noted that Tajikistan had called on its partners to take concrete measures to help increase security along its common border with Afghanistan. “I informed my colleagues about steps taken by Tajikistan to minimize effects of new challenges and threats we face”, Aslov said, noting that the meeting also discussed Tajikistan’s steps to widen ties with Afghanistan.

Tajik minister said the meeting also discussed issues related to the CSTO’s cooperation with international bodies such as the United Nations and joint efforts against terrorism, extremism, transnational crime, and cybercrime.

After the meeting, Sirojidin Aslov told journalists that the CSTO foreign ministers adopted a joint statement on the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. According to him, the statement, in particular, notes that it is inadmissible to revise outcomes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The CSTO Foreign Ministers Council is a charter body of the organization which holds sessions twice a year: in the run-up to a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (the end of the calendar year) and in between sessions (second quarter). The meeting of the council in between sessions is organized in the state which holds the CSTO chairmanship.