MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin)
An informal meeting of Russian and NATO defense ministers in Berlin has produced first results. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has accepted yet another proposal of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov to establish cooperation between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) which unites Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. He also invited his CSTO counterpart Nikolai Bordyuzha to Brussels to discuss joint efforts against international terrorism and drug trafficking in Central Asia. RIA Novosti learned this from Bordyuzha himself.
The CSTO first proposed cooperation to NATO in June 2004, but received no reply. NATO had declared the Caucasus and Central Asia a zone of its strategic interests, and Brussels was not prepared to share responsibility for the regional developments with any other organization, even the one uniting the nations of this area.
But NATO has been unable to cope with the situation in the region on its own. Its anti-terrorist operation against the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other Islamic fundamentalists and extremists in Afghanistan has failed to achieve the desired effect. Terrorists continue attacking the area from neighboring Pakistan, and drug trafficking has reached catastrophic proportions. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov told his NATO colleagues in Berlin that "90% of heroin is smuggled into Europe from the territory of Afghanistan. Moreover, its production is steadily growing. It went up from 360 tons in 2003 to 420 tons in 2004, and will exceed 500 tons in 2005."
Since the start of this year about 50 tons of Afghan drugs have been confiscated in Russia alone, said Sergey Ivanov. Afghanistan's share in the world opium production has reached 87%, and the growth of drug-containing crops has registered 60%. "Turnover of drugs from Afghanistan has already reached 30 billion dollars," he said. "It amounts to a drug war against post-Soviet nations and all others."
NATO has failed to rebuff this aggression single-handedly, without the assistance of Central Asian countries and Russia. It is unlikely to win this battle if it does not cooperate with all the governments and organizations involved. The CSTO is ready to help, and this is not a mere declaration.
Recently, the CSTO held several anti-terrorist exercises in Central Asia. Their names - Frontier-2003, Frontier-2004, and Frontier-2005 -- speak for themselves. In 2004 and 2005, the CSTO conducted an operation code-named Channel, which helped close down one route of drug trafficking. This was the so-called Northern route whereby drugs and drug precursors were supplied from Afghanistan to Western and Eastern Europe via Central Asia and Russia.
The CSTO is training personnel to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, and taking other political and military measures to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies on the territory of its member countries. It also has its own quick reaction force. The CSTO is planning to set up joint forces for peacemaking missions and emergency situations, which will include police and rescue units, as well as epidemics control teams.
Moreover, since its establishment two years ago (after all its member-states ratified the relevant treaty) the CSTO has become the most efficient organization of CIS and Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC): its resolutions are binding on all its members.
CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told RIA Novosti that he did not expect an easy meeting with his NATO counterpart in Brussels. "But we have specific proposals for a concerted effort against terrorism and drug trafficking in Central Asia," he said. "It's up to NATO whether to accept them or not. We can move in parallel, but we'll achieve so much more if we work together."
