Secretary general names major challenges for CSTO

CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov spoke about the challenges the organization faces and the ways to counter them in an interview to the STV TV channel, BelTA has learned.

“The CSTO is not an aggressive bloc. The task of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is to protect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the member states that are part of our organization. If we talk directly about the challenges and threats, these are primarily transnational terrorism, religious extremism, drug trafficking, illegal arms trafficking and illegal migration. We are working very seriously in all these areas,” Imangali Tasmagambetov said.

According to the secretary general, a sub-regional anti-drug operation took place on 21-25 October. It involved border services, customs services and state security services of the CSTO member states. The observers were representatives of China, Iran, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the CIS and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. A total of 24,000 personnel were involved. “Thanks to coordinated actions on the territory of the zone of our responsibility a total of 590 kilograms of drugs of various types were seized  a part of the five-day operation. Seven drug laboratories were destroyed and more than 680 drug crimes (manufacture, sale, distribution) were suppressed. This was well-coordinated work by the CSTO member states.
Such work is carried out to deal with practically all the challenges,” he said.

According to Imangali Tasmagambetov, a certain amount of illegal weapons were arrested during this anti-drug operation. These weapons were in the possession of the same people who were involved in illegal drug trafficking. “We are working on the matter, and this is a very serious challenge for us,” he stressed.