CSTO Secretary General Tasmagambetov Speaks about NATO

CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov held a press conference on the results of the organization's work in 2024. It was held in a video conference format between Astana, Bishkek, Minsk, and Moscow, Orda reports.

The Secretary-General spoke from the capital of the Russian Federation.

Imangali Tasmagambetov's statements during the video conference were openly pro-Russian.

Tasmagambetov began by summing up the results of the session held in Astana in late November. 

He noted that the participating countries adopted several vital documents and agreed to support efforts to ensure joint regional security.

Among the key agreements, he named the decision on an interstate program to strengthen the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Tasmagambetov emphasized that the CSTO faces “the emergence of new points of tension” and threats “of a hybrid nature.”

He also made a peculiar statement about NATO:

We see the advancement of NATO's offensive infrastructure to the western borders of Belarus and Russia, the growth of military activity, and in general the geopolitical turbulence that we are observing cannot exclude any scenarios. But we all know that the Russian Federation has made very serious changes to its nuclear doctrine, and the combat testing of the Oreshnik cannot be ignored by potential adversaries, said Imangali Tasmagambetov .

Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken profusely about the "unrivaled" Oreshnik in Astana a few days earlier.

Like other CSTO members, the CSTO Secretary General confirmed that Kazakhstan will continue to purchase military equipment from Russia.

It must be said that the military-industrial complex of Russia works very effectively. As for the supply of weapons and military equipment by Russia to the CSTO countries, these are, by and large, issues of bilateral military-technical cooperation. said Imangali Tasmagambetov.

The Secretary-General also touched upon the issue of jointly combating cyber threats, and again, he assigned Moscow a key role.

We addressed the Security Council of the Russian Federation with a corresponding request since Moscow has a fairly extensive network of research institutes and forecasting structures. An order was given, in accordance with which we built relationships with each of these research institutes, signed corresponding memorandums, and exchange information,  Tasmagambetov announced.

He also commented on the situation with Armenia, explaining that it would not affect the organization's efficiency. 

And he assured that Armenia would remain a CSTO ally; if it wants to return, it can. 

The CSTO Secretary General announced that CSTO exercises will be held in 2025. 

The main exercises of the year, "Frontier-2025", will be held in Kyrgyzstan, and military personnel from the CSTO states will also train in Belarus and Tajikistan.

At the end of the press conference, Imangali Tasmagambetov discussed how the CSTO countries are preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. Once again, his speech contained a Russian narrative:

There is probably no need to say that the multinational people of the once united large state were able to defeat fascism and defend peace and freedom. Naturally, we are now seeing an alarming trend, when certain forces are trying to whitewash fascism, rewrite history and revise the results of World War II, said Imangali Tasmagambetov

He did not clarify what forces are doing so.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny