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Ex-Soviet states seek to mend rifts in 'Russian NATO'
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Ex-Soviet states seek to mend rifts in 'Russian NATO'
AFP - Saturday, August 1
CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan (AFP) - - The presidents of seven ex-Soviet states met Friday for a summit of a Russia-led security grouping touted as an eastern counterweight to NATO but riven by disagreements.
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The leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) were seeking at a lakeside resort in Kyrgyzstan to smooth out differences over a June 14 deal to establish the group's first joint rapid reaction force.
Presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, who had both expressed disgruntlement with the move, were nonetheless both in attendance.
The creation of the force -- officially called the Collective Operational Reaction Forces (CORF) -- is a clear bid to rival the Western military alliance NATO's own joint operations.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes that without such a force "the CSTO cannot become a fully-fledged military-political group," a Kyrgyz defence official told AFP.
But the idea had a difficult birth when the authoritarian but increasingly Western-leaning Lukashenko refused to show up at the June 14 meeting in Moscow to sign the document establishing the force.
Kremlin officials have expressed confidence that he will sign it during the gathering at Cholpon-Ata, on the idyllic Lake Issyk Kul, but Belarussian officials have yet to confirm this.
Russia meanwhile has asked Kyrgyzstan to allow the establishment of a base for the force in the country's southern city of Osh, an idea that has not received universal backing within the group.
The issue would be discussed at a bilateral meeting between Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Medvedev on Saturday, the secretary of Kyrgyzstan's national security council Adakhan Madumarov said.
But the base has met a cool reception from Karimov, the strongman president of neighbouring Uzbekistan, who is currently seeking better ties with the United States. Karimov is expected to signal opposition to the idea.
Russian and Kyrgyzstan would sign a document on the creation of a "security zone" on Kyrgyzstan's southern borders, Madumarov said, in an apparent bid to placate Karimov.
"Moscow's plans to strengthen the CSTO's military components and transform it into the Russian equivalent of NATO are threatened with collapse," the Kommersant newspaper said.
The CSTO is made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia has been nervously eyeing increasingly independent behaviour by several states in Central Asia, as both Moscow and Washington jostle for influence in a region close to the battleground of Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan in June agreed to let US forces remain at the Manas airbase outside Bishkek, used to support operations in Afghanistan, effectively reversing a previous decision in a move seen by many as a blow for Moscow.
Earlier Friday, Medvedev inaugurated the 720-million dollar Sangtudinskaya hydroelectric plant in Tajikistan, a project that aims to bolster Russian influence as well as easing Tajik energy problems.
The Tajik power plant -- set to provide 12 percent of the Central Asian country's total energy production -- was built at a cost of 720 million dollars and is by far the biggest Russian-Tajik project of recent years.
"This is without doubt a joyful event for all of our people. This is proof of the fruitfulness of our bilateral relations," said Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon at a ceremony alongside Medvedev.
The Russian government owns a majority stake in the project. The plant started producing energy in January 2008 and has been stepping up output since.
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Enlarge Photo
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (left) shakes hands with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon in Dushanbe. The presidents of seven ex-Soviet states have met for a summit of a Russia-led security grouping touted as an eastern counterweight to NATO but riven by disagreements.
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