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Nato receives no official proposal from CSTO to jointly fight terrorism: spokesman

Politics Materials 5 February 2009 19:50 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 5 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/ Nato has not yet received an official document from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to jointly fight terrorism, Nato spokesman said on Feb. 5.

"There is no official statement that I am aware. I have seen only press reports that indicate that," Nato spokesman James Appathurai told Trend in a telephone conversation from Brussels.

CSTO countries agreed on Feb. 4 to establish a common force to combat terrorism and other threats. They noted that Nato has not yet responded to the call to cooperate.

"We have repeatedly addressed Nato. But they do not want to get into contact," Reuters quoted CSTO representative Vitaly Strugovets.

The goal of the CSTO and Nato are similar - to prevent terrorism threats, fight drug trafficking and transnational organized crime. But the organizations do not plan any joint actions, Strugovets said.

CSTO unites Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus and Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan joins the regional military police unit only on special occasions.

Until now Nato has had no formal relationship with the CSTO, Appathurai said. "Nato has good relations with its member-states. But until now the allies is not engaged directly with the CSTO. There is no agreement between the allies, no decisions by the allies to do that," he said.

Appathurai refused to comment on further developments. "I don't know if the situation would change. I can't speculate about what will happen in the future," he said.

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