Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 20 / Trend V.Zhavoronkova /
Uzbekistan's withdrawal from the Organization of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is not a big problem, North South Political Centre General Director Aleksei Vlasov said.
Uzbekistan officially suspended its membership from the CSTO on Wednesday. The CSTO has accepted Uzbekistan's decision to suspend its membership; however there will be no concessions for the country in joining the organization once again.
"The issue of withdrawal of Uzbekistan from the CSTO was clear," -member of the Trend Expert Council Vlasov said.
According to him, even prior to Tajikistan's withdrawal from the CSTO it was clear that Tashkent will be building its security relations on the basis of bilateral agreements considering withdrawal of antiterrorist coalition from Afghanistan in 2014.
"From the reaction of the CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha as well as other officials it is clear that no one perceives this as a threat to the future of organization," Vlasov said.
According to him, the organization is still facing more important issues such as a systemic reform of decision-making principles of the CSTO and transformation of the organization into a more efficient and flexible tool for provision of security.
According to Vlasov, the most important decision of yesterday's meeting in frames of integration projects is the launch of functioning of the Eurasian Economic Union by early 2015.
All negotiators expressed their intention to sign a final document on establishment of a common Eurasian space by 2015, he said.
"This is a great success not only of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, although, of course, I believe he contributed greatly to restart of the Eurasian integration project, but also of Kazakh Prezident, who came out with the practical idea of eurasianism,"- Vlasov said.
In late June Uzbekistan sent a note to the CSTO Secretariat to suspend its participation in the organization. Uzbekistan has previously already left the CSTO: in 1999 Tashkent refused to extend the contract, but in August 2006 restored its membership in the CSTO after cooling of relations with the West due to critics of the brutal dispersal of riots in Andijan in 2005.
The CSTO member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The Organization of the Collective Security Treaty was established on the basis of the Collective Security Treaty, signed on May 15th, 1992 by CIS member-states.