Uzbekistan Returns To Russian Treaty Group

THE STANS

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov during a Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakh town of Almaty, 17 June 2006. Putin said the gathering, only the second summit of the group, should re-inforce cooperation in fighting terrorism and extremism as well as drug trafficking and international crime. Photo courtesy of AFP.

by Staff Writers
Washington DC (UPI) Jun 25, 2006
In a further repudiation of its former close ties with the Bush administration Uzbekistan has rejoined the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization defense pact. The move is a striking indication of Russia's resurgence in Central Asia following harsh Western criticism of the Uzbek authorities in quelling a disturbance in Andijan in May 2005.

Uzbekistan is the now CSTO's seventh member. The CSTO also includes the former Soviet republics of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia.

During a CSTO summit in the Belarus capital Minsk, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said, "We were pleased to have been informed by Uzbekistan that it has lifted its moratorium on active work in CSTO."

Uzbekistan in 1992 had co-founded CSTO, but suspended its membership seven years later as it adopted a more pro-Western foreign policy, particularly towards the U.S.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Uzbekistan allowed the United States to operate a U.S. military base at Karshi-Khanabad, K-2, starting in November 2001 to aid the U.S. armed forces and their allies in their operations against the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The Hindu newspaper in India reported Monday that with Uzbekistan reintegrated in the CSTO, the Russian-led military alliance stretches from North Atlantic Treaty Organization frontiers in the West to China, which Uzbekistan is allied with in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

CSTO chairman Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka stressed that, "The main task of CSTO is to keep intact our Western borders," according to The Hindu report

Source: United Press International

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THE STANS

Leaders Urge Joint Drive For Peace At Kazakh Summit

Almaty (AFP) Jun 19, 2006
Leaders of countries in conflict-stricken Central Asia and their neighbours on Saturday called for cooperation to secure peace amid issues such as Middle Eastern violence and the nuclear threat.

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