Uzbekistan01/08/2007Eurasia regional groups to promote cooperation: official
The CIS Collective Security Agreement Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will soon sign an agreement to promote cooperation, a senior official said on Tuesday.
"Both the CSTO and the SCO have a wide range of activities, and security issues should be resolved together," the Interfax news agency quoted CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha as saying.
The pact will specify all areas of cooperation between the two regional groups, including cooperation in security, Bordyuzha said. He added the two organizations should work together in rebuilding Afghanistan and preventing the Taliban from retaking power.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has said earlier this month that a host of major pacts will be signed during a SCO annual summit in Bishkek in August.
The Russia-led CSTO military bloc was set up in 1992 to focus on regional security issues. It consists of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The SCO aims to enhance security, trade, military, judicial and cultural cooperation between its member countries -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan are observers of the group.