Thursday 12 January 2012
NATO versus CSTO: The Clash between Competing Military Alliances
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0 forum post(Center for Research on Globalization, by Dadan Upadhyay) – In the 1990s, Russia, which played a leading role in uniting the seven former Soviet republics under the CSTO, was already feeling the threat of the NATO’s eastward expansion close to its borders and the planned deployment by the US of the national missile shield in East Europe…
- According to the CSTO treaty the member states maintain their security on collective basis. Article 2 of the Treaty claims: “In case a threat to security, territorial integrity and sovereignty of one or several Member States or a threat to international peace and security Member States will immediately put into action the mechanism of joined consultations with the aim to coordinate their positions and take measures to eliminate the threat that has emerged.”
According to the 1995 Declaration of the CST Member States, combining their efforts in the sphere of collective security, they consider the establishment of the system of collective security as a part not only of the European security system but also as a building block of a potential Asian security structure.
NATO’s eastward expansion and the US’ missile shield plan in East Europe compelled the CSTO to create a Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) for deployment in Central Asia.
Nearly two decades after it was formed, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a seven-member regional security bloc led by Russia, is rapidly expanding its profile in the evolving global security architecture and is emerging as an alternative to counter the designs of the US and NATO in the Central Asian region.
The pressure from NATO and the US on the former Soviet Central Asian republics is spiking tensions in the extended region, including Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East. NATO’s manoeuvres, under the garb of advancing democratic values and freedoms, has made the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military-political regional security bloc led by Russia, all the more important in countering common threats and in influencing the evolution of the global security architecture.
