[lbo-talk] Uzbekistan rejoins defence pact led by Russia

[uvj at vsnl.com]

The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/

Monday, Jun 26, 2006

International

Uzbekistan rejoins defence pact
http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/26/stories/2006062604491400.htm

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Uzbekistan has rejoined the Russia-led defence pact, paving the way
for the organisation to extend its reach beyond the borders of the former
Soviet Union.

Uzbekistan on Friday became the seventh member of the Collective Security
Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which also includes Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia.

"We were pleased to have been informed by Uzbekistan that it has lifted its
moratorium on active work in CSTO," Russia's President Vladimir Putin said
addressing a CSTO summit in Minsk, Belarus.

Uzbekistan, which co-founded the post-Soviet defence pact in 1992, suspended
its membership in 1999 in an effort to re-orient its policy towards the U.S.
At the peak of the bonhomie in 2001 Uzbekistan hosted a U.S. military base
on its territory for the anti-Taliban operations.

However, Uzbekistan turned back to Russia and shut down the U.S. base last
year after Washington criticised President Islam Karimov's handling of an
Islamist armed revolt in Uzbekistan' southern province of Andijan, and in
the wake of U.S.-backed "coloured revolution" coups in several ex-Soviet
states.

Vast region

With Uzbekistan reinstated in CSTO, the military bloc straddles a vast
region from NATO in the West to China in the East, prompting comparisons
with the Cold War-era Warsaw Pact.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka, who took over from Russia rotating
chairmanship in CSTO, stressed that the main goal of the defence pact is to
ensure the member-states security "in the Western direction."

"The main task of CSTO is to keep intact our Western borders," Mr.
Lukashenka said on Friday after the biggest Russian-Belarus war-games since
the break up of the Soviet Union timed to coincide with the CSTO summit in
Minsk.

The expanded defence pact is also reported to be seeking to raise its
profile and play a role outside its borders in Central Asia.

Uzbekistan shares a long border with Afghanistan and it was from Uzbek
territory that the Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in 1979.

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