Six leaders have gathered for the summit: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Armenian President Serge Sargsyan, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, and Kyrgyz President Roza Otumbaeva. The Uzbek leader Islam Karimov will not be attending the summit.

One of the key issues is the situation in North Africa and the Middle East. As Dmitry Medvedev pointed out ahead of the meeting, it “has a direct impact on the situation in the CSTO”. He also promised to “inform his colleagues about the mediation efforts” Russia is taking.

Another topic the leaders are likely to devote time to is the current state of affaires in Kyrgyzstan, which is still far from political stability after last year’s bloody popular uprising which ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. As for Medvedev, he plans to discuss “major regional threats and the overall situation in the area”. “Russia is interested in strengthening the CSTO potential,” the president stressed.

The Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko shares this view:

Lukashenko has always insisted that CSTO military forces should be used as peacekeepers on the territory of the organization’s members, if such a need arises. Last year he called for intervention into the Kyrgyz violence in order to help Bakiyev restore power. The other leaders did not support his stance, but Lukashenko still helped the ousted Kyrgyz president by giving him asylum in Belarus. Experts then said that the Belarusian leader was attempting to indemnify himself in case a similar scenario played out against him. Although Belarus is more stable politically than most Central Asian republics, discontent with the incumbent president has been gaining ground there, especially in light of the systemic crackdown on the opposition and the worsening economic situation. Experts believe that while in Astana, Aleksandr Lukashenko will also take a chance to talk about an economic bailout for Minsk.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed on 15 May 1992. On 7 October 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a charter in Tashkent founding the CSTO. On 23 June 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant in the CSTO. The CSTO is currently an observer organisation at the United Nations General Assembly.

The CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. To this end, the CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organisation cooperation. The largest-scale CSTO military exercise held to date were the “Rubezh 2008” exercises hosted in Armenia where a combined total of 4,000 troops from all 7 constituent CSTO member countries conducted operative, strategic, and tactical training with an emphasis towards furthering efficiency of the collective security element of the CSTO partnership.