MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2023) Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Imangali Tasmagambetov is headed to Kyrgyzstan to meet with the country's political and military leadership, the organization said on Thursday.
"CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov will visit Kyrgyzstan from March 9-10. During the visit, meetings with President Sadyr Japarov, Foreign Minister Zheenbek Kulubaev, secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council Marat Imankulov as well as Defense Minister Baktybek Bekbolotov and the leadership of the border security service are planned," the CSTO statement read.
It is Tasmagambetov's first trip as CSTO secretary general to the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek, according to the organization. In January, the ex-Kazakh defense minister and diplomat was appointed as the organization's new chief, replacing Stanislav Zas of Belarus.
In February, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel General Anatoly Sidorov said that a joint exercise of the CSTO peacekeeping contingents, "Indestructible Brotherhood-2023," that was originally planned to be held in Armenia, would take place in Kyrgyzstan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in January Yerevan had informed the CSTO that it considers inappropriate the hosting of the organization's drills in the country this year due to border tensions between Yerevan and Baku.
