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
