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CIS: BUILDING A COLLECTIVE SECURITY SYSTEMSergey MINASIAN
Sergey Minasian, Ph.D. (Hist.), lecturer at the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) State University World Politics and International Relations Department, research associate with the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Institute of History (Erevan, Armenia)
Formation of a collective security system in the post-Soviet area began with the breakup of the Soviet Union and creation of the CIS. Thus, on 14 February, 1992, it was decided to establish the Council of Defense Ministers and the Main Command of the CIS Joint Armed Forces (JAF), and on 20 March, 1992, an agreement on the JAF for a transition period was signed. So an attempt was made to preserve a unified defense area and to reform the former Soviet military as a unified CIS military. Nonetheless, many FSU republics at the same time began to form their own national militaries. This in effect led to a divvying-up and nationalization by the newly independent states of Soviet military assets, equipment, and property deployed in their territory. Then a treaty on quotas to the CFE Treaty was signed in Tashkent.
Thus, by May 1992, it became clear that a centralized CIS military under a single command could not be preserved. The main reasons for that were the strengthening of centrifugal forces, disintegration of the military command and control system, conflicts between FSU republics, and a number of other factors. At the same time the leadership of the majority of the republics was increasingly aware of the need for new, more effective forms and mechanisms of integration in the military-political sphere that would help put in place a more viable security system at far lower economic, scientific, and technical costs, and stop escalation of armed conflicts in the post-Soviet area. It was with these considerations in mind that, on 15 May, 1992, representatives of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, in Tashkent, signed the Collective Security Treaty (CST)—an example of a regional security organization formed in full compliance with the provisions of Art 52 of the U.N. Charter. Subsequently, it was joined by Azerbaijan (24 September, 1993), Georgia (9 December, 1993), and Belarus (3 January, 1994). The Treaty went into effect on 20 April, 1994, following the deposition of instruments of ratification by the signatory states.
It needs to be said here that the Treaty was originally conceived as a military component of the Commonwealth of Independent States, on the assumption that it would be joined by all CIS countries, becoming part of a general and comprehensive security system in Europe and Asia.
For a number of reasons, however, not all of the CIS states acceded to the Treaty. As a result, in the following decade, the process of military integration within both the CIS and the CST advanced with a………………
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