CSTO Secretary General on organisation’s possible expansion in near future

The expansion of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in the foreseeable future is possible, since the world will have an increasing need for the organisation’s peacekeeping missions – as stated by CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov, TASS reports

“Of course, such a possibility is not excluded in principle,” Tasmagambetov noted, answering the corresponding question during an interview with the Editor-in-Chief of the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defence) magazine Igor Korotchenko.

He also added that in the context of the breakdown of the old world order, accompanied by the restoration of old and the emergence of new conflicts, the need for a military-political alliance is increasing.

“It is possible that our peacekeeping activities will become a kind of driver in the expansion of the organisation or the emergence of new formats of co-operation on the CSTO basis of the; unfortunately, the need for the CSTO peacekeeping mission will only increase in the foreseeable future,” the Secretary General is confident.

According to Mr. Tasmagambetov, ‘the CSTO offers very favourable conditions for participation’.

“I believe, the absence of strict bloc discipline and a democratic decision-making procedure within the organisation can be viewed as one of the main conditions,” he stated, adding that the most important thing is that the CSTO gives priority to political and diplomatic methods of resolving crisis situations.