Lukashenko off to Tajikistan for CSTO, SCO summits

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has left for Tajikistan on a working visit. The airplane of the head of state took off from Minsk National Airport, BelTA has learned.

Tajikistan is set to host a session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and a meeting of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on 15-17 September.

The agenda of the CSTO summit will highlight issues of international and regional security and their impact on the security of the CSTO member states.

One of the most important issues will be the situation in Afghanistan. On 23 August, at an emergency session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, Aleksandr Lukashenko urged to develop a common position on Afghanistan before the summit in Dushanbe.

"Let's be sincere: for the time being this position is like this ‘let's wait and see what happens next and then respond accordingly’. This is wrong. Of course, we will be watching what happens next. However, we need to clearly understand that given the information and the facts that we heard today, we need to develop a common position rather than issue all kinds of calls and statements. Otherwise, it will be too late to do something to rectify the situation,” the head of state said.

The leaders of the CSTO countries are expected to adopt a declaration of the Collective Security Council and sign several documents related to peacekeeping activities, provision of troops and their armament.