MIRROR ORGANISATION

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) grew from the ashes of the dissolved Soviet Union and was signed in 1992, ultimately coming into effect in

April 1994. It currently boasts six members: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. As with NATO, CSTO has attempted to band together with like-minded countries in order to share military force, equipment and general support with the notion that there is safety in numbers. Although far smaller, CSTO mirrors Article 5 of NATO, offering a collective mutual defence system, reinforcing the belief that it’s the Eurasian counterpart of NATO. By the 2000s it had expanded, culminating with a Rapid Response Force in 2009.

Russian minister of defence Anatoly Serdyukov met with his CSTO in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, during a summit meeting in 2007