Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) has marked its 30th year at an anniversary summit hosted by Moscow recently

• It is an intergovernmental military alliance of six countries that came into effect in 2002.
• The headquarters is located in the Russian capital of Moscow.
• Its objectives are to 
  • strengthen peace, 
  • international and regional security, including cybersecurity, 
  • safeguarding member states’ independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.

Members:

Current CSTO members are – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, and Tajikistan.

 What does membership mean?

1. CSTO membership means that member nations are barred from joining other military alliances, for example, NATO.
2. Most importantly, membership presumes certain key security assurances – the most significant of which deter third countries’ military aggression.
3. In the CSTO, aggression against one signatory is perceived as aggression against all.
4. It, however, remains unclear whether this feature works in practice.