MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is holding a strategic command post exercise on March 12-13 to practice stabilization in Central Asia amid the growing risk of a crisis, CSTO Joint Staff press secretary Vladislav Shchegrikovich said in a statement.
"A military-political and strategic situation has been simulated for the exercise. Its scenario is based on certain conventions, and the names of states and international organizations have been changed. The situation models a possible escalation of potential threats in the organization's zone of responsibility and a crisis in a conventional state within the Central Asian collective security region," the statement said.
The exercise is taking place "in a complicated international situation," CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov said at the event.
"Old conflicts are becoming aggravated in various parts of the world and new hotbeds of tension are being provoked, including those within the CSTO zone of responsibility. Modern crises have an increasingly hybrid nature and require a comprehensive approach to their settlement," he said.
A key goal of the exercise is to update the procedure for collective crisis response actions and to assess their effectiveness with due account taken of the CSTO Collective Security Council resolution on measures towards the development of the CSTO crisis response system adopted on November 23, 2023.
CSTO Joint Staff Chief Col. Gen. Andrei Serdyukov is supervising the exercise. "The strategic command post exercise is a key event that lays the groundwork for preparations for the Unbreakable Brotherhood 2024 command post exercise with the CSTO peacekeeping forces that will take place in Kazakhstan this fall," he said.
According to the exercise scenario, the president of a CSTO member state asks the CSTO Collective Security Council chairman for assistance. The Collective Security Council holds an urgent meeting and decides to begin a peacekeeping operation. A crisis response center and taskforces of CSTO member states are deployed in furtherance of the decision. The exercise also practices drafting proposals and resolutions of CSTO bodies regarding the peacekeeping operation. Emphasis is placed on the formation of the peacekeeping forces, the procedure for their regrouping and deployment to the conflict zone, and the provision of military-technical assistance.