On August 25, a website linked to the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russia would evacuate more than 500 Ukrainian citizens from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states and Ukraine. The report lists Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as CSTO member states.
In two places, the report mentions Uzbekistan as a member of the CSTO. Russian media outlets, particularly TASS, also reported the error without correction.
The Republic of Uzbekistan has not been a member of this organization since 2012.
This comes after the CSTO announced its readiness to cooperate with Uzbekistan, and the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended the extraordinary session of the organization in the form of a videoconference on the situation in Afghanistan.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a Russian-led military bloc.
Kun.uz contacted the MFA press service to comment on the situation. Foreign Ministry officials have strongly stated that Uzbekistan is not a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. A ministerial spokesman said he was unaware of the reports in Russian media.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a militarized regional international organization established under an international agreement signed on May 15, 1992 in Tashkent. It included nine republics of the former Soviet Union. Currently, only Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan are its members.
Uzbekistan first withdrew from the organization on April 2, 1999. Subsequently, on August 16, 2006, following the cooling of relations with the United States and the West, Uzbekistan’s membership in the CSTO was fully restored.
On June 28, 2012, Uzbekistan withdrew from the organization again and did not rejoin. The Foreign Ministry did not disclose the reasons for Uzbekistan’s withdrawal.
According to the Law “On approval of the concept of foreign policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan” adopted in 2012, the membership of Uzbekistan in military-political blocs is prohibited, and this concept is currently in force.
It should be noted that despite the fact that the concept was adopted at the legislative level, it was hidden from the public – it has disappeared from open sources.
Neither the Senate, nor the Legislative Chamber, nor the Constitutional Court, nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have commented that the concept of foreign policy remains secret.
The concept of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy is expected to be updated this year.
At a briefing on 12 July, Sherzod Asadov, a spokesman for the President of Uzbekistan, answered a question from a Kun.uz correspondent about the possibility of Uzbekistan’s rejoining the CSTO.
“Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2012 due to the adoption of the law “On approval of the concept of foreign policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan”. According to the document, the Republic of Uzbekistan does not participate in military-political blocs, as well as does not allow the deployment of foreign military bases and facilities on its territory.
In addition, Article 4 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Defense” states that the principle of “non-alignment with military-political blocs” is one of the main principles of state policy in the field of defense.
At present, we do not have information on the proposals of the partner countries to consider the issue of reinstatement of Uzbekistan’s membership in the CSTO,” Sherzod Asadov said.
