Jun 16, 2009

CSTO: Where "Unanimous" Goes to Die

It looks like Moscow’s plan to revive the moribund Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO ) is proving to be a lot harder that issuing a press release and holding a summit.
"A June 14 summit in Moscow of the Collective Security Treaty Organization devolved into a very awkward affair for the Kremlin, as the authoritarian-minded leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenka, boycotted the gathering, and Belarus and Uzbekistan opted not to sign a key agreement to create a rapid reaction force."

Belarus is miffed because the Kremlin redefined “unanimous approval by all six member states” to mean unanimous approval by all six member states, except Belarus. Also, Minsk wants to make milk imports the subject of CSTO talks, leaving Russia’s delegation at their wit's end.

Milk, you want to talk about milk? This is a defense organization.

And to think, prior to becoming president, Medvedev's only problem was how to spend billions of dollars on popular “National Priority Projects” for health, housing, education and agriculture.

Sorry Medvedev.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And to think that Russia withdrew from WTO negotiations last week in favor of launching a Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

WTF?!

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

Yeah, no one knows what to make of this Belarus business.