Yerevan to host CSTO summit, agenda includes providing assistance to Armenia

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Leaders of member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will gather in Yerevan, Armenia for the November 23 session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, the highest body of the security bloc.

The session will focus on international and regional security issues and the main results of the organization’s activities in the inter-parliamentary arena, the CSTO said in a press release.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the current Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council, will chair the summit.

The summit will be attended by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

The CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas will also participate in the session.

Among other issues, the CSTO leaders will discuss the perfection of the organization’s crisis response system and also joint actions for assisting Armenia.

A declaration is expected to be adopted during the session.

President Lukashenko will present Belarus’ priorities as his country will take over the CSTO Chairmanship in 2023.

Other issues on the agenda relate to equipping the peacekeeping forces with modern weapons and hardware, joint formation of a Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense and Medical Support Unit, the CSTO 2023 budget and others.

Before the summit, a joint session of the CSTO foreign ministers, defense ministers and secretaries of security council will take place to discuss the military political situation in the CSTO area of responsibility.

Political statements are expected to be adopted at the joint session on strengthening international and regional security and arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. In addition, a statement is expected to be adopted on condemning attempts of glorifying all types of Nazism, neo-Nazism, extremism, chauvinism and xenophobia.