- ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Leaders of ex-Soviet nations that are part of a Russia-led military alliance have met for talks on the potential threat posed to Central Asia when US forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
Speaking before Friday’s informal summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said it will discuss how to mitigate the impact of US military forces’ pullout from Afghanistan on the region.
The leaders of the CSTO member states — which also include Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — met for the talks in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.
The bloc has been widely seen as Moscow-driven attempt to create a counterweight to NATO, but internal divisions have hampered the development of a full-fledged security alliance.