CSTO military development guidelines discussed in Moscow

Partaking in the meeting were State Secretary of the Security Council Leonid Maltsev, Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei and Defense Minister Yuri Zhadobin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Belarus in the CSTO Igor Petrishenko.
The focus in the meeting was made on the organizational issues of the forthcoming session of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Moscow on 19 December. Participants of the meeting considered a number of draft decisions made by the CSTO heads of state to enhance the organization's military capacity, outlined the main areas of the emergency collective response system as well as collective measures to counteract challenges and threats coming from Afghanistan, and looked into Uzbekistan's request to suspend its participation in the CSTO.
The participants of the meeting took stock of the progress made in the implementation of the CSTO priority areas under Kazakhstan's chairmanship in 2012. Kyrgyzstan that is to preside at the organization next year announced the CSTO priority areas for 2013.
The Foreign Ministers discussed and approved the materials worked out on the initiative of the Belarusian and Russian sides on further coordination of the CSTO foreign political activity in the international organizations.
The Defense Ministers took several decisions on the CSTO military component development, personnel training and approved the action plan of the CSTO Defense Ministers Council for 2013.