MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization plays an increasingly important part, enhancing international security, said Andrey Kokoshin, the chairman of the State Duma committee for CIS and relations with compatriots and the ex secretary of the Russian Security Council.
"For the time in existence the organization has transformed into a viable power that seriously and on a permanent basis ensures security of all its members," he told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.
He added that now that Uzbekistan joined the CSTO the Central Asian approaches to all organization's members are safely protected.
"The situation in Afghanistan is aggravating, which is our deep concern. Having taken responsibilities for security in some parts of Afghanistan, NATO does not seem to cope with the task. Taliban is taking more power, with numbers of terror attacks increasing. In some points, the situation in Afghanistan is now quite as difficult as in Iraq, while western television gives far less information about what is going on in Afghanistan than it does concerning Iraq," he said.
He maintained that in this situation the Collective Security Treaty Organization is taking timely measures to improve its capabilities, coordination and increase forces.
He expressed pity for NATO's refusing to establish direct links with the organization. "It is a big mistake even from the prospective of NATO's own interests. I believe that the near future will make it more evident that the NATO's stance is erroneous," he said.
He emphasized that this is yet another illustrative example of the positions of certain politicians in the West, who do not want to cooperate with Russian and its friends and allies as far as the security in the world is concerned. "Such attitudes undermine the possibility of joint efforts and the viability of the antiterrorist coalition, and moreover contradict the statements by leading nations of the international community with respect to combating terrorism," he said.