By the way a final press-conference was attended only by the Russian and Armenian leaders and CSTO Secretary General Borduzha. There were rumors among journalists on the sideline that all CSTO states may recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. However the results of the Summit shuttered these illusions but showed that the CSTO may become an effective security providing instrument in the post-Soviet area regulated by the member states themselves without any interference from outside. It is the most important result against the background of evident inefficiency of such organizations as the United Nations and OSCE.
Dmitry Medvedev pointed out that the CSTO is a young organization but very promising. According to him in order to raise its profile, in addition to concerted actions -- especially in times of crisis, like that in the Caucasus – the member states need to step up cooperation on all fronts: ensuring regional and interregional security, preventing emergency situations, engaging in disaster management and, last but not least, based on the nature of the organization, its military component.
The Russian leader said: “If the Organization develops in this direction, it will be a strong organization, which really helps ensure the national security of all member-states. Without certain rigidity in the implementation of decisions, without strengthening its military component, the Organization cannot grow, and we are now talking about this with my colleagues. It is quite obvious”. The President urged everybody to think about a new security architecture “which would be based on the principles of international cooperation, strict compliance with international law, avoiding arbitrary interpretation of the law and conflict prevention. This order should be based on multipolarity and the avoidance of domination by any state which considers it possible to assume the role of establishing a single world order”.
During the session the heads of state discussed prospects of further strengthening of the military, military-technical and political cooperation. They signed several documents aimed at further development of their partnership.
The Collective Security Council outlined priority activities of the Organization in the second semester of this year and in the first semester of the next year. They include new steps aimed at development of the collective military capability. The Summit endorsed the regulation governing procedures for drafting, financing and implementing CSTO targeted inter-governmental programmes. One of the stated goals is to bring the military-technical cooperation on a higher substantial level. Thus, the alliance is gradually transforming from a political into military political organization.
The Summit also approved the CSTO Collective Action Plan for implementing the UN Global Counterterrorist Strategy for 2008-2012. Since it is impossible to combat the terror without undermining its financial basis, the CSTO Summit paid special attention to creation of so-called anti-drag and financial security belts. In this context comprehensive special preventive operation Canal conducted by the Organization since 2003 is of a great importance. The UN International Committee on Drugs Control already recognized it as a large-scale and efficient. Therefore the CSTO session made a decision to assign a status of the On-Going Regional Drug Combating Operation to the aforesaid initiative.
The Summit also signed an agreement on training law-enforcement, fire-fighting, rescue and special-purpose service personnel of the CSTO member states. Its implementation will become a significant step forward in generation of a comprehensive special-purpose personnel training system for the CSTO states to combat terror, drug-trafficking, and manage natural and man-made disasters.
The heads of state approved the Joint Action Programme on forming information security systems among the CSTO member states, and several other documents on organizational fundamentals regulating activities of the CSTO executive bodies.
At the Moscow Summit it became clear “who is the host in the house”. The session made a decision that from now on all CSTO Summits of the heads of state will be held in Moscow regardless the fact what state chairs currently the Organization. The CSTO HQ will be also located in Moscow. It will have an extra-territorial status similar to that of the NATO HQ in Brussels. Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, First Deputy of the Armenian Defense Minister, was appointed to be the Chief of the Joint Staff. Armenia has taken over the presidency in the CSTO.
And finally, a key document signed by the heads of state is a declaration that reflects the view of the CSTO member states on the main problems of international security, as well as the vision of their solution.
The CSTO heads of state gave unambiguous negative assessment to the Georgian aggression, supported the role of Russia during those events and urged all parties to strictly fulfill the Medvedev-Sarkozy Plan. As for the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, each of the CSTO states will take a decision independently. The Declaration also calls on the NATO countries to weigh up all possible consequences of NATO’s eastward expansion and the deployment of new missile defense system components. Besides the CSTO initiated non-proliferation of medium- and short-range ground-based missile technologies, and recognized the right of Iran to develop its peaceful nuclear energy sector.
Thus a main intrigue of the Summit if the allies would support recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, remained undiscovered. The fact that the narrow-format meeting, at which the presidents might speak in non-diplomatic words, lasted beyond the schedule, is indicative. Journalists had no chance to see the debates. However according to INTERFAX the provision of the Declaration relating to the assessment of the August military conflict became a result of a compromise. According to the news agency the parties discussed at least three versions of the text proposed by Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia. By the way neither Kazakh nor Armenian versions directly referred to Georgia. The final text of the document contains the harsher Russian version.
Dmitry Medvedev was very tough at the press-conference:“We need to conduct ourselves decently, to abide by international law, respect the agreements that have been reached, including with respect to peacekeeping. If someone does not do so, they will face harsh consequences. The conflict in Georgia is a lesson for the entire international community, including for those who take decisions about additional funding and military-technical cooperation with Georgia”. According to him, Russia would not like “Georgia, which acted as aggressor, to continue to arm and to do so uncontrollably, with unclear objectives and completely unforeseeable consequences”.
Other leaders spoke less emphatically and used regular diplomatic phrases. In particular, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that Kazakhstan is satisfied in general with the results of cooperation within the framework of the Organization, and expressed confidence that the made decisions will contribute to strengthening of the regional security. Simultaneously the Kazakh mass media tried to avoid focus on the Caucasus subject of the session. Only newspaper Liter touched upon this subject in its article “Abstained in Substance”: “Initially the CSTO Summit was to hand over the presidency to Armenia and approve several documents. And of course to verify fulfillment of the decisions taken by the last-year session of the Collective Security Council”. However, according to the author the Russian side insisted that the allies would express their positions with respect to recognition of the two Caucasus republics. It is noteworthy that despite all statements and declarations the Russia’s CIS partners persistently ignore the efforts of Russia, which pushes them to recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Well-known Kazakh political analyst Dosym Satpayev believes that Russia should be easier to push its CSTO Asian partners. “The Central Asian states digested the lesson well – to increase your own significance you need to balance between Russia, China, the EU and the USA”, reminds Dosym Satpayev. “Therefore the unambiguous transition to the Russia’s position is not beneficial to them. Recently the Lower House of the Kazakh Parliament ratified an agreement on the presence of a NATO liaison officer in Kazakhstan who should provide for contacts between the Alliance and state leadership”. Besides, many heads of state are worried that Russia may invite South Ossetia and Abkhazia to the CSTO, so other member states will have to recognize their independence de-facto.
