Armenia appoints new representative of armed forces at CSTO

September 30, 2013 - 20:07 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - By the decree of Defense Minister, colonel Arakel Martikyan was appointed as a representative of Armenia’s armed forces at the country’s permanent mission to CSTO, Defense Ministry press service said.

All the provisions of the Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) apply to Armenia, as a CSTO member, and in case of a military strike against Armenia, these norms will come into force, director general of the Institute for Caspian Cooperation Sergei Mikheev said when commenting on Azerbaijan’s threats to use force against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed on May 15, 1992. The CSTO employs a "rotating presidency" system in which the country leading the CSTO alternates every year.

CSTO

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, formed under the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, serves as a mutual defense alliance among Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty (CST) was signed on May 15, 1992 for five-year term, with the possibility of prolongation. On December 2, 2004 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Resolution to grant the observer status to the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the General Assembly of the United Nations. The goal of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is to strengthen peace and international and regional security and stability and to ensure collective protection of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Member States, in the attainment of which Member States shall give priority to political methods. On February 4, 2009, the CSTO leaders approved formation of Collective Rapid Reaction Force (RRF).