This decision is expected to emerge from the upcoming CSTO summit in Minsk on June 23. President Vladimir Putin discussed the planned changes with CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha.
Making the CSTO a universal organisation will allow it to respond to all the modern challenges facing its members and to successfully develop not just military but also political cooperation.
The organisation has plans to form collective emergency reaction forces whose functions will include responding to natural and technological disasters.
These forces will be used both within the area covered by the Collective Security Treaty and also outside this area – under UN mandate.