The Presidents of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan discussed current multilateral security cooperation issues, including the coordination of joint efforts to combat international terrorism and political and religious extremism.
The meeting also examined the possibilities for strengthening ties with other international bodies, in particular the OSCE, the Shanghai Five, the United Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
The Presidents concluded the meeting by signing agreements aimed at strengthening peace, stability and security in the member countries.
Under the terms of the agreement on the status of the formation of collective security forces and systems, the signatories to the Collective Security Treaty (CST) can “send to the territory of CST signatories, at their request and with their approval, troop formations to jointly counter military aggression, hold joint counter-terrorist operations or command and troop exercises”. The agreement stipulates that decisions on the deployment, missions, composition and number of troop formations, the places where they will be stationed and the length of time they will be on a country’s soil are made by the heads of states of the CST signatory countries through the Collective Security Council.
The Presidents of the CST signatory countries also adopted a declaration on the situation in Central Asia and Afghanistan, in which they expressed their readiness to provide the necessary assistance to any CST signatory country in the event of armed attack of its territory by terrorists and extremists. “The meeting’s participants declare firmly that any attempt to violate the territorial integrity of the Central Asian signatories to the CST will meet with our combined resistance”, the declaration states.
The meeting approved a programme for the CST forces for 2001–2005.
Following the summit, the Presidents of the CST signatory countries made press statements and answered questions from the media.