On December 19, the Armenian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense Edward Nalbandian and Seyran Ohanian and the Secretary of the Armenian National Security Council (NSC) Arthur Baghdasaryan took part in the joint meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Ministers of Defense and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

In the course of the meeting the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Collective Security Council, to be held on December 20, and the issues to be discussed were approved, which are directed to the further strengthening of the Organization and the cooperation in its frames.

The Ministers touched upon the decisions made by the Collective Security Council held on December 20 and the implementation of the agreements reached during the informal meeting of the Heads of the CSTO’s member countries.

During the joint meeting the statement to be adopted by the Heads of the Organization’s member countries on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of signing of the Collective Security Treaty and 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Collective Security Treaty Organization was discussed.

The agenda of the meeting included issues related to the improvement of the collective security system, the optimization of military-economic and military-technical cooperation, the fight against terror and illegal turnover of drugs and emergency response, as well.

The CSTO’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense and the Secretaries of the Security Councils discussed the annual report of the Organization’s Secretary-General, and the issues relating to cooperation in information, organization and financial spheres. The participants agreed on the place and timeframe of the next meeting of the CSTO’s statutory bodies, as well.

As a result of the meeting, over two dozen documents which were presented to the approval of the Collective Security Council were signed.

At the end of the meeting, Belarus handed over the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Ministers of Defense and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the CSTO to Kazakhstan.

On the same day separate meetings of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Ministers of Defense and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the CSTO took place.