DUSHANBE, October 2, Asia-Plus - Security of Central Asia will remain vulnerable until problems of fighting terrorism and drug trafficking are resolved, Nikolai Bardyuzha, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), remarked at a meeting with journalists in Sochi on September 27.  

Among threats facing the CSTO Bardyuzha named the threats emanating from Afghanistan, were terrorist organizations destabilizing the Central Asian region are based.  According to him, to make the fight against terrorist more efficient it is necessary to discover the main channels through which through which Afghan heroin, marijuana and opium are being smuggled were being smuggled.   

The other factor contributing to destabilizing the situation is the zones of so-called “frozen” conflicts.  “Forcing events in these zones may lead to destabilization of the situation in other regions as well,” Bardyuzha said, noting that collective peacekeeping forces may possibly be created in November this year at the next meeting of the council of the CSTO security secretaries.  

The other threat is attempts by third countries to interfere into affairs of the CSTO member nations during election campaigns.  

On the Uzbekistan decision to regain the CSTO membership, Bardyuzha noted that Uzbekistan''s recent decision to regain CSTO membership will dramatically change the geopolitical lineup of forces in Central Asia and all other post-Soviet countries.  As a CSTO member, Uzbekistan will act in coordination with other member nations, which should improve the effectiveness of anti-terrorist and anti-extremist operations. By 2008, Uzbekistan should complete an accelerated procedure of joining the nearly 70 international treaties and agreements within the CSTO.

At the same time, the CSTO secretary general noted that there are some bilateral problems between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  “However, these problems are being discussed within the Organization proceeding from interests of the countries,” Bardyuzha said.  

On the necessity of countering illegal migration, Bardyuzha pointed to the necessity of expanding cooperation between the Organization member nations in the field of migration.  

The Collective Security Treaty Organization members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.  The organization has become a full member of the international security system, whose efficiency largely depends on the ability of member states to undertake coordinated action and harmonize their foreign policies.

Colonel-General Nikolai Bordyuzha (Ret.) graduated from the Perm School of Commanders/Engineers and the Higher Military Counter-Intelligence Course.  He was deputy commander of the Russian Frontier Forces (1992-1998); deputy director, director of the Federal Frontier Service (January-September 1998); Secretary of the Russian Security Council (September 1998 to March 1999) and simultaneously head of the Presidential Administration (from December 1998); Ambassador to Denmark (December 1999 to April 2003).  Since April 2003, he is General Secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.