Bordyuzha: NATO is not ready to talk with CSTO

PanARMENIAN.Net - NATO and its Russian-dominated counterpart, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), should work together to form a new security system in Europe, the head of the CSTO said in Brussels on Wednesday. "Nowadays, the system of the balance of power in Europe is failing. The security architecture has to be re-made," CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told journalists in Brussels, The Earth Times reports.



"We think that the situation demands that (the CSTO and NATO) work together," he said after talks with the ambassadors of CSTO member states at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.



Bordyuzha's statement implies that both alliances could be part of any future deal, in what is likely to be taken as a positive sign by NATO members.



"We are ready to unite our efforts" with NATO, he said.



The CSTO is a group of seven countries - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Uzbekistan - who have pledged to jointly defend one another's security.



Bordyuzha said that he saw no reason for a collision between the CSTO - sometimes referred to as the "Russian NATO" - and NATO.



"They are all dealing with the same problems of security," such as terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal migration. The CSTO has been pushing for the last four to five years for more cooperation with NATO on those issues, he said.



"Unfortunately, NATO is not ready to talk with us," he said.