MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - A summit of the post-Soviet CSTO security bloc leaders opened in Moscow on Sunday in the absence of the Belarusian president, who pulled out of the meeting in protest against Russia's trade restrictions.
The summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan is expected to focus on the creation of joint rapid-reaction forces and the prospects for their development.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Sunday that foreign ministers of the CSTO member states had prepared at their meeting, held before that summit, all necessary documents for creating a joint rapid-reaction force.
"The main result of today's session of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers was the fulfillment of instructions from the February CSTO summit on the creation of a rapid-reaction force. The package of documents is ready. They include an agreement on the rapid-reaction force, and documents regulating the deployment and the strength of the collective forces," he said.
Russia already has joint military contingents with Belarus and Armenia through the CSTO.
The new force will comprise large military units from five countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Analysts say the creation of a powerful military contingent in Central Asia reflects Moscow's drive to make the CSTO a pro-Russian military bloc, rivaling NATO forces in Europe.
Russia's security strategy until 2020, recently approved by President Dmitry Medvedev, envisions the CSTO as "a key mechanism to counter regional military challenges and threats."
The rapid-reaction force will include an airborne division and an air assault brigade from Russia, and an air assault brigade from Kazakhstan. The other members will contribute a battalion-size force each, although Uzbekistan would "delegate" its detachments to take part in operations on an ad hoc basis.
Meanwhile, Belarus has said that no decisions passed at the CSTO summit will be valid without its involvement.
Russia has infuriated Minsk by banning imports of the country's dairy products, citing violations of new Russian standards.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a note handed to the CSTO'S secretariat that the country's non-participation "means the lack of approval from the Republic of Belarus of decisions being considered" at the summit, along with the foreign and defense ministers' meetings, and "consequently a lack of consensus for the taking of these decisions."
