The Chiefs of General Staffs at a meeting of the CSTO Military Committee via videoconferencing discussed the challenges and threats to military security in the Caucasian, East European and Central Asian regions of the CSTO collective security

On November 19, 2020, the 17th meeting of the Military Committee on the development of military cooperation between the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization was held via videoconferencing.

The meeting under the supervision of the Chairman of the Military Committee, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, was attended by the Chiefs of General Staffs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Tajikistan, the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, First Deputy Chiefs of the General Staffs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The event was also attended by the Deputy Secretary General of the Organization Piotr Tsikhanouski.

A discussion of the challenges and threats to military security in the Caucasian, East European and Central Asian regions of the CSTO collective security took place. Representatives of the General Staffs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus and the Kyrgyz Republic made reports.

The Head of the CSTO Joint Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, informed the members of the Military Committee about the main results of military cooperation between the CSTO member states and the directions of its development in the medium term.

Speaking about joint training in 2020, Anatoly Sidorov noted: “The strategic command and staff training on the basis of the CSTO Crisis Response Center, a special training with the assets of Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics “ Echelon-2020” and the command and staff training with the CSTO CRRF Command on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as a command and staff training with the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces “Indestructible Brotherhood-2020” on the territory of the Republic of Belarus were prepared and conducted with high quality”.

The Head of the CSTO Joint Staff said: “No problematic issues have been identified either in the preparation of joint measures from the point of view of methodology, or in the actions of the trained command and control bodies and troops during joint operations and combat training. The main problem this year was the possibility of the arrival of the training participants on the territory of the states due to the restrictions on coronavirus infection and the need to take preventive measures to prevent its spread in the training areas."

«"The CSTO Joint Staff has worked out a possible option for organizing joint trainings, if a similar situation in the sanitary and epidemiological situation repeats next year," the Head of the CSTO Joint Staff said.

The meeting participants heard information about the working meetings of representatives of the medical services of the defense departments of the CSTO member states.

“The defense departments of the CSTO member states are carrying out a set of measures for continuous monitoring of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the course of daily activities, combat training, including joint training of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces). In these conditions, further development of the system of medical support for joint training and use of the CSTO Troops (Collective Forces) is required,” Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov said.

The members of the Military Committee, having heard the Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, supported the proposal to hold annual working meetings of the heads of the medical services of the defense departments of the CSTO member states to jointly resolve issues of medical support and joint actions in responding to threats to epidemiological security.

The Chairman of the Military Committee, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, summing up the results of the meeting, said: “Today we held a regular meeting of the Military Committee of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

We discussed the military-political situation on the borders of the CSTO. We agreed to continue the exchange of information on challenges and threats to the member states of the Organization in order to develop and adopt joint decisions to ensure collective security.

We summed up the results of military cooperation between the CSTO member states in 2015-2020 and determined the main directions of its development for the next five-year period.

We clarified the procedure for further work on organizing joint operational and combat training activities next year, improving the structure and composition of the CSTO Collective Military Air Forces, ensuring the readiness of the CSTO Collective Rapid Response Forces to perform tasks as intended.

We also considered issues of interaction between the defense departments of the Organization's states in the field of military medicine. We recommended that the authorized bodies of the military administration of the defense departments of the CSTO member states hold annual working meetings of the heads of medical services on the most pressing problematic issues of medical support.

The results of the meeting of the Military Committee will contribute to maintaining regional stability and strengthening the collective security of the Organization's member states.