Russia wants Uzbekistan to restore full-fledged CSTO membership - diplomat
MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Moscow will spare no effort to persuade the Uzbek authorities to join the Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) agreement regulating the status of forces and means of the collective security system, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"We continue working to persuade Uzbekistan to restore its full-fledged membership in the CSTO," Ryabkov said in the State Duma on Friday.
He spoke ahead of the Russian parliamentary debate on a bill ratifying the agreement on the status of forces and means of the CSTO collective security system, which was signed in Moscow on December 10, 2010 by all of the organization's member countries except for Uzbekistan.
"Uzbekistan has not contributed to the implementation of the military component of the Collective Security Treaty since 2006. As the agreement was drafted, Uzbekistan insisted on principles that would rule out the possibility of using collective forces in the future," Ryabkov said, answering a question from members of the Communist Party's parliamentary faction.
"That is why the text of the document agreed upon with all CSTO member countries proved inopportune for Tashkent," he said.
