Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues and friends,

I am happy to greet you here in Moscow at the anniversary meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, dedicated to the 20^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 10^th anniversary of our organisation. Congratulations to all of you on this momentous occasion.

We have just held a meeting of the Collective Security Council in a restricted format, where we had a very frank exchange of views on current international issues, identified our further joint efforts to counter global and regional challenges and threats, and shared our analysis of the situation in the world and in international security.

I would like to note that our approaches to the main issues of international and regional security are very close. I am confident that CSTO’s role in the world will continue to grow.

I am pleased to give the floor to President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, who holds the presidency in the organisation this year.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev: Thank you, Mr Putin.

First of all, on behalf of all CSTO members I would like to express our gratitude to the Russian side and personally to President of Russia Vladimir Putin for the excellent organisation of the anniversary meeting of the Collective Security Council and the traditional hospitality. Mr Putin, I would like to once again congratulate you on your victory in the presidential election and on taking office, and to wish you success and all the best to the Russian people.

“We had a very frank exchange of views on current international issues, identified our further joint efforts to counter global and regional challenges. Our approaches to the main issues of international and regional security are very close.”

Esteemed members of the Collective Security Council, participants in the meeting,

I propose that we continue our meeting in an expanded format. At the restricted attendance meeting of the Collective Security Council we exchanged views on current global and regional security issues. As always, according to tradition, our discussion was very frank and trust-based. I believe it will be useful for our organisation and for the relations between our countries.

We also talked about boosting our collective measures in the field of security, including combating modern threats and challenges, primarily those emanating from Afghanistan. In addition, we reviewed the situation in the Middle East, Western Asia and North Africa, including the developments in Syria and the Iranian nuclear issue.

Following the restricted format meeting we adopted the Declaration of CSTO member states, which covers a wide range of international security issues that are in one way or another connected with the security of CSTO member states. The Declaration also provides a realistic assessment of the organisation’s activities since its inception.

Friends,

Today we celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 10^th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. In this regard, the central theme of the expanded format meeting should be CSTO’s main achievements in the period from 2002 to 2012, and priority areas of the organisation’s development.