Uzbekistan announced about the reasons to leave CSTO

As it was already informed yesterday Uzbekistan suspends its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Uzbekistan has explained the reasons of the decision. According to “Kommersant” magazine the country leaves the Organization because of the disagreements over the programs on Afghanistan issue. The magazine refers to the sources of the Uzbekistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We do not agree with the CSTO programs on Afghanistan. Uzbekistan prefers to have a bilateral cooperation with this country. Besides this, Tashkent does not like the programs which aim to strengthen the military cooperation between the CSTO member-countries”, the source informed the newspaper and added that the note is already sent to the organization on the occasion.

Uzbekistan has already left the organization once in 1999 but then came back on August, 2006.
The rumors about Uzbekistan existed since October, 2011 when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to overview the issue of Uzbekistani participation as Tashkent did not verify any essential document in frame of the organization.

So six countries are in the CSTO now and they are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Russia and Turkmenistan.