CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization)

Overview:

What is CSTO?

The CSTO stands for the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance of post-Soviet countries based in Eurasia.

Formation of CSTO:

On 15th May 1992, six post-Soviet states, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan signed Collective Security Treaty. This treaty was also known as Tashkent Treaty or Tashkent Pact. After one year in 1993, three other post-Soviet states, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia signed this treaty. The Collective Security Treaty came into effect in 1994.

Five years later, three states withdrew their membership from the treaty, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan.

The remaining six states agreed to renew the treaty for five more years. On 7th October 2002, all six member countries agreed to convert this treaty into an organization and after that, this treaty became Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

In 2006, Uzbekistan joined the CSTO again with full membership, but in 2012, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the CSTO.

Members of CSTO:

Currently. The CSTO has six permanent members, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

The CSTO also has two observer member states, Afghanistan, and Serbia since 2013.

Objectives of CSTO:

The main objective of the CSTO is to protect the member countries from any kind of aggression or attack by outside forces. It is a security alliance of former Soviet-Union countries.

CSTO Headquarters:

The headquarters of the CSTO is situated in Moscow, Russia.

Important points of CSTO:

The signatories of the CSTO can not join any other military alliance.

The aggression against one signatory would be perceived as aggression against all the signatories.

To establish a military base of a third country in any of the CSTO member state’s territories, it is necessary to obtain the consent of all its members.

The official language of the CSTO is Russian.

India and CSTO:

India is not a member of CSTO because this is an alliance of former Soviet-Union countries. The CSTO is a security alliance whereas India recognises itself as a non-alliance country.