CSTO exercise in Tajikistan to involve 2,500 troops

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. More than 2,500 troops of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) states will be involved in the organisation’s manoeuvres in Tajikistan, the CSTO press service told TASS on Thursday. The exercise will also engage some 200 weapons and military equipment units, some 20 combat aircraft. The personnel and military equipment are being moved to the exercise area by 30 military-transport aviation planes. According to the CSTO press service, the organisation member states’ contingents are being moved to the south of Tajikistan to Harbmaydon range. Units of the Armenian armed forces will soon be deployed to the drills area and a special force brigade of the armed forces of Kyrgyzstan will complete a march from its territory to the range. "To control the drills and organise the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force exercise, the organisation’s Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha is flying to Tajikistan today," the press service said, adding that the manoeuvres will be conducted under the general command of Chairman of the CSTO Council of Defence Ministers, Tajikistani Defence Minister Lieutenant General Sherali Mirzo. The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance, uniting six ex-Soviet nations - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia. Currently, Russia holds the rotating presidency of the organisation. Among its fundamental objectives is combating international terrorism. The CSTO aims to strengthen the national and collective security of its members through military-political cooperation, coordinating foreign policy, and establishing cooperation mechanisms. Reportedly, the CSTO is undertaking an effort to develop relationships with the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council, the OSCE, and other security entities. Read more