CSTO foreign ministers to meet in Bishkek on 22 May

Bishkek, May 18, 2019. / Kabar /. A session of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization will take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 22 May, BelTA has learned.
Opinions about topical problems of international and regional security will be exchanged during the restricted-attendance part of the session. The CSTO's operation in current conditions will be discussed.
During the expanded-participation part of the session documents concerning various aspects of the CSTO's work will be discussed and signed. A list of joint statements for the year 2019 is one of them. Participants of the session are expected to approve draft resolutions of the CSTO Collective Security Council on the plan of collective actions of the CSTO member states on implementing the UN global antiterrorism strategy in 2019-2021, on the list of additional measures designed to reduce tensions at the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. Participants of the session are also expected to pass resolutions on the plan for consultations of representatives of CSTO member states about matters of foreign policy, security, and defense in H2 2019 – H1 2020, on the regulation on information interaction of the CSTO crisis response center.
There is a total of eight items on the agenda of the session of the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council. The items concern virtually all spheres of activity of the organization.
BelTA quoted CSTO Acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov as saying in Minsk on 16 May that the matter of appointing a new CSTO secretary general will be decided during the session of the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council on 22 May. In his words, the appointment of State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Stanislav Zas as the CSTO secretary general will be discussed. Valery Semerikov reminded that the Republic of Belarus is supposed to get its turn to fill the position of the CSTO secretary general on 1 January 2020. A representative of Armenia is supposed to work as the CSTO secretary general right now but a force majeure has happened. "I think the final decision on appointing the new secretary general will be made on 22 May. We have one candidacy submitted for approval and many presidents have approved of it. We are going to thoroughly discuss the matter," the CSTO acting secretary general said.
Belarus' candidacy has already been approved by Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. Armenia prematurely recalled its representative Yuri Khachaturov from this office, yet the country insists on getting its own candidate appointed to the CSTO secretary general position.